Improvisation can take you a long way
by SirClaaus
Summary: The series of events that lead a VI technician into the events of Mass Effect and then make him one of the many indispensable people to the salvation of the galaxy. I rated this T for swearing and some violence.
1. Chapter 1

**So, guys, this is my first fanfiction. I have to say I was pretty nervous about uploading this, but the only way I can progress and write better stuff is showing what I've made to you. If you guys think that I should work on certain things then by all means, let me know. I really want to write credible and interesting conversation, as well as a little bit of my take on the smaller details of the universe's technology, so I hope I deliver. Also, characters from the games will start appearing in future chapters... bear with me please!**

 **This is a fan fiction, all characters and themes belong to Bioware... except the OC's... well they can keep them if they want to.**

 **Without further ado, here's the story. Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

Caleb Jerris sat at the Eternity bar in Illium. In a few days he would embark on a month long journey aboard the Langdon, a cargo ship for hire, carrying a full load of containers across de Attican traverse. He was done with the background check of most of his crew, but he was missing a VI technician. The ship would be crossing unsettled systems, so a skeleton crew was the only option, but he had a few days, and he had worked his ass off for a week, so he deserved a night of drinking and maybe an asari on the side. A turian bartender slid a blue phosphorescent drink towards him and it stopped right in front of his hands. After activating his omnitool and touching the tip jar, making it ping, he began nursing the sweet liquor as he swept imaginary hair back over his bald scalp. The asari beverage made his tongue tingle and goose bumps went down the back of his neck as the alcohol burned his throat. His gaze floated to his right where it met the eyes of a young asari who was ignoring the friends she was with, a small smile tugged her lips to one side, and Caleb could swear he felt being pulled like a magnet towards the woman at the other side of the bar. He gulped down the rest of the glass and began pushing off the bar when a man sat down beside him, covering the view to the girl.

"Sorry, Jerris, am I interrupting your love staring session?" the man asked in a mocking tone. He wore a long, hazel, scruffy beard, reaching the collar of his shirt, his green eyes seemed tired and droopy, giving him a hungover look. No one wore beards in Illium unless they were homeless, which was precisely why Caleb kept a clean shave to show off his sharp chin and dressed expensively. He was no hobo, and the world needed to know it.

"And who the hell are you?" Caleb's piercing blue eyes scanned the man's face. He had no time for small talk with this mess of a man, even if seeing humans in Illium was a rare sight. Furthermore, the asari would probably lose interest after seeing them talking. If there was something that Illium taught him is that appearances matter. They matter a lot.

"I'm hurt you don't recognize me. It's Nicolas Baker, from Eden Prime? I'm not surprised I found you here, you always did have a thing for aliens." The man adjusted his sleeves. He was dressed in common black clothes, but his shirt was wrinkled and there was an odd smoked smell to it.

Caleb gasped as memories of his time in university were conjured back from many years ago, "I would never have recognized you, it's been years! What is that shit on your face?"

"It's hair, Caleb. Looks like you've been among cartilage heads for too long, you forgot what it is."

"At least I look like a person with a job. What brings you to Illium anyway?"

"As a matter of fact, I'm looking for a job, and your security chief is a common acquaintance of ours. He told me you were looking for a VI technician." Nicolas smiled under his beard as he beckoned the bartender over, who reluctantly approached, "Give me a Thessian Temple and a beer, pretty please," when the bartender set off to prepare the mixed drink, he opened his omnitool to pay and directed his attention to Caleb, "The girl is drinking the Thessian shit, go give it to her. I'll leave you alone if you hire me."

Caleb sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose. When the bartender returned with two glasses, he smiled at the man beside him, "I'm just doing this because I know you can get the job done. Let's meet tomorrow for the contract and all that stuff, here's my number." His omnitool came to life and after a few button presses, Nicolas' wristband beeped. As Caleb stood up, he grabbed both the beer and the blue drink, "Thanks for the beer, buddy."

Nicolas' mouth hung open as Caleb left with his drink but chose not to protest. He had a job, after all, and in his old friend's ship, no less. This called for something stronger than a beer, and maybe a shave later in the night… people were staring and it was getting on his nerves.

"Did I keep you waiting too long?" Caleb set the glass beside the asari, and she accepted it with a sultry smile.

"I could literally have waited seven hundred years, darling. Who was the hobo anyway?"

Nicolas chuckled to himself and stopped eavesdropping as he waved at the bartender again. Rolling his eyes, the turian walked over to Nicolas, ready to kick him out of the bar for bothering the patrons.

"Give me the rest of that Serrice Ice Brandy bottle over there, would you say there's two portions left in it?"

"I'd say three, but whatever. That'll be two hundred credits."

After finishing the bottle, he got up to leave, head suddenly woozy from standing up too quickly. He saw Caleb talking to the asari, laughing with the rest of the group. _That dog._ His friend had a way with people, which was probably the reason why he was able to coax Illium's finest mercenaries to work security in a transport vessel, or maybe it was the money. Quick inter-system transport was a booming business in the Illium sector, and Caleb was well aware of it. Nicolas checked his omnitool to see the contact info Caleb sent him.

 _The Boss_

 _[Press to call]_

 _Note: get your ass to port 17 at 0800 Standard Illium time, you start tomorrow. Pack your things, because we're having a long trip._

He chuckled on his way out of the bar and walked towards the hotel he was staying in. His previous contract had expired, and now he found a job after a couple of days of searching, praised be networking with mercenaries. Looking back on the past few eventful days, sleepiness caught up with him shortly after entering his hotel room.

…

"I see you decided to look _decent_ today." Caleb spoke loudly when Nicolas was within earshot. The sun shone on his scalp and dimples formed on his cheeks as he directed a smug smile at his friend.

"I know I looked gorgeous, but people went overboard with the whole staring thing." Nicolas rubbed his chin, the skin soft and a bit itchy where the thick beard once was. His cheeks felt cold, but he would get used to it soon enough. A duffel bag hung at his shoulder and a small tool bag was strapped to his back. With modern technology, he needed little more than a week's worth of clothes and his omnitool to make any trip, regardless of the length. The only limited resource was cigarettes, but they surely would have loads in the Langdon.

"I think they were staring because they feared for their valuables, I could've sworn you were gonna jump me when I saw you."

" _Real_ funny, man. So where's the rest of the crew?" Nicolas drew a cigarette from his pocket and lit it with his omnitool's flash-forged lighter, a five centimetre long film of silicon-carbide, which combusted after use.

"It's just us, Nicolas. I brought you here so you could get acquainted with the ship. You sign the contract, check in right now, and you wait till we arrive tomorrow."

"You're keeping me here for a whole day? What about lunch and dinner and stuff?"

"There's a fully stocked kitchen in the Langdon. Make yourself at home, get to know the VI, explore the ship, whatever the hell you wanna do. We leave tomorrow for thirty days, so I would recommend you get comfortable."

"Fine. Where are we going, and where's the contract?"

"We're taking a shit ton of mining equipment to Ondeste, then bringing back whatever they want to sell to Illium. Here's the contract," Caleb handed Nicolas a data-pad, which he read over carefully, and signed with his finger at the bottom when he saw that his friend wasn't trying to bullshit him, "Ok, then. The Langdon is yours to explore. Don't get lost, and don't fuck with Hal. It's taken me long enough to program jokes into the thing."

"You named the VI _Hal_? What are you two hundred years old now?"

"Admit it's a catchy name. Now get in there." Caleb slapped him on the shoulder and turned to leave.

Nicolas watched him go before approaching the blast door for the transport shuttle. The Langdon would be waiting above Illium's atmosphere, as the ship was probably too massive to venture into it. He took some drags from the cigarette and looked up at the sky, as if he were able to make out the outline of the ship in the deep blue sea of stars. Cigarette hanging from his lower lip, he swiped his hand over the door's green open light. It cycled a few seconds, the shuttle's internal computer checking biometrics to cross reference with publicly available records to make sure it was indeed an employee who was trying to enter. Nicolas puffed smoke impatiently. The shuttle blastdoor soon hissed open to reveal a cramped cabin which could fit ten people at the most. Seats with over the shoulder restrains lined the edges, it was a rapid transport vessel, so it should probably take him up to the Langdon in a matter of seconds. He left the duffel bag under a seat and sat down, pulling the restrain over his shoulders until it clicked into position. His omnitool beeped once and when it lit up, a menu popped open with basic actions for the shuttle, _ascend, open blast door_ and _release restrains_. After pressing the button to ascend, the blast door slid shut and a calm masculine voice filled the inside of the hull.

"Preparing for launch. Priming thrusters for rapid ascension. Praying everything goes well."

"What!?"

"Launching in ten seconds, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, mark." The voice continued oblivious to the interruption, and a low pitched hum emanated from the bottom of the shuttle before a loud rumble shook the hull and Nicolas' head was pulled down from the momentum of the shuttle ascending towards his new workplace.

After a couple of seconds of straining to keep his head from falling off, the rumbling of the ships thrusters slowly faded away into silence, the G's were diminishing to decent levels and a screen slid down from the ceiling, covering the blast door. It lit up, displaying a diagram of the Langdon, Illium and the shuttle ascending towards its destination. A counter appeared, signalling contact was just seconds away. When the shuttle arrived, the shuttle shook briefly as it latched on to the Langdon's airlock and the blast door opened. Nicolas pulled his restraint upwards and stood to walk into the ship. The artificial gravity was set to Earth standard, and he felt oddly light in comparison to when he was in Illium. After the airlock opened for him to walk into the ship, the same disembodied voice from the shuttle disturbed the low pitched humming of the ship's generators.

"Hello, Mr. Baker, I am Hal, the onboard VI."

"Hello Hal. Pleased to meet you."

"Pleased to meet you too," the voice continued with a tone of absolute indifference, making it very clear that it was indeed originating from a computer program, "My duties aboard the Langdon are maintaining life support, auto-pilot functions and diverse basic systems required to maintain the ship's equipment, as well as cargo logistics and organization. I understand you will be working on keeping me in check."

"As long as that doesn't bother you, my job will normally involve that all your hardware is kept in optimal conditions." Nicolas smiled as he walked down a corridor that connected the airlock to the bridge.

"I see no reason to be bothered. I trust you will do an… acceptable job," the VI's response made Nicolas stop in his tracks and consider whether it was mocking him, "That was sarcasm, Mr. Jerris instructed me to use occasionally during conversations with you."

"Alright Hal, let's just get to work. Can you upload the ship's schematics into my omnitool? Also, where is the smoking lounge and where can I get something to eat?"

The man wandered around the vast insides of the ship, stretching four hundred meters from bow to stern and boasting a personnel deck and a single high ceilinged cargo deck. While smoking a cigarette, Hal informed him that ventilation was active across all decks, and as long as the entirety of the crew inside a determined room smoked, it was permitted. In any other situation, the smoking lounge would always be open. After an hour of exploring and enquiring, he ended up at the mess hall. Easily able to fit thirty crewmembers, it had a variety of cooking appliances, and in the pantry hidden behind a door on the port side there were stacks of boxes filled with instant-cook flavoured rations. Nicolas heated up his dinner and finished his trip with the VI core, located at the end of the pantry behind a locked door which he and a couple of other employees, according to Hal, had the clearance to enter. After eating he picked up his duffel bag from the shuttle and went to sleep at one of the bunk beds in the barracks near the mess hall.

…

"Captain Jerris has arrived, Nicolas." The VI announced over the bathroom speakers the following morning, making Nicolas jump and nearly slip on the wet floor.

"Next time you wanna talk to me, Hal, do it after I'm done with my shower," Nicolas sputtered as the shower spray hindered his ability to speak.

"Duly noted, but you really should hurry up, water is a limited resource in spa-"

"Jesus Christ, mother hen! Alright, alright, alright," he turned the knob to off and shook his hair off before stepping out of the cubicle to grab a towel, "I'm out. And don't bullshit me, I know about your water filters."

"Well then, have fun drinking your own pee."

Caleb stepped off the shuttle and sent it back down to make another trip, picking up the rest of the crew. He had brought the pilot, Patrick Fitch, the head of security, Robert Pearson, a ship technician and a couple of mercenaries. The next shuttle rides would bring the rest of the mercenary security team.

"So Robert, you already knew Nicolas?" Caleb inquired, curious at his old friend's odd circle of acquaintances.

"Ha! I met the lad a wee while ago, but I could tell 'e was a good egg when I saw him. Ye start noticing things with age, Cap'n," the bald mercenary had a face way more wrinkled than a regular sixty year old. With modern medicine, plastic surgery and skin rejuvenation was as cheap as can be, but some people saw little use in looking young eternally and some habits could age skin twice as fast as normal. Robert cared little about a young complexion and smoked like a chimney. Caleb noticed he had a lit cigarette in his hand every time he saw the man.

"Hey Caleb!" Nicolas waved as he emerged into the bridge from around a corner, "Robb! It's been ages! Who's the new one?" Nicolas stepped towards Robert and shook his shoulder amicably as he stretched a hand towards the much taller pilot.

"This is Patrick Fitch, our pilot for this voyage." Caleb explained, patting the pilot on the back, "Get along with him, the blast door controls are in the cockpit."

…

After a week in deep space, the ship had to stop at an uncharted solar system to discharge the hull from the FTL jump they just finished. Caleb opened a comm channel to Nicolas' omnitool.

"Nicolas, could you go down to the VI core? The systems seem to be overheating a bit, maybe the refrigerating system is malfunctioning."

"Tell Hal to be cool. I'll get back to you in a bit."

The Captain massaged the bridge of his nose and smiled despite himself, and a voice message came in from the pilot, "Can his jokes get any worse?" he chuckled, as he hovered his hand over the button to end the call.

An audible gasp came through the intercom, "I am comedy gold, Fitch." Was the on-board engineer's response, sounding mock-hurt.

Captain Jerris shook his head as he closed the line. Being the captain of a transport vessel would've been boring without his friend and now colleague aboard. Usually these ships were travelling for weeks at a time, but due to their large mass, FTL travel couldn't be sustained for long distances before having to stop and discharge at the nearest system with gas giants. The Langdon was the biggest transport ship in the Crescent Nebula, making regular travels between Illium and the neighbouring systems. With its nearly half kilometre length and being able to run on a crew of four, it had the resources to travel without stopping for almost three months, and ten of the best mercenaries in the Attican Traverse to protect whatever the Langdon would be carrying at the time.

Caleb was getting ready to turn in to get some shut-eye before the next shift, when the pilot pinged his omnitool again, requesting his presence at the cockpit. The sector they were traversing had no colonies, so whatever the problem was, it surely wouldn't be too bad.

"It's good you're here, Captain. We have a ship on intercept course. Batarian make, and we won't be able to make a jump for another fifteen minutes."

"Who are they, P? Have they hailed us yet?"

"I've tried making contact over radio, but they aren't responding, and approaching that deliberately can't be good. I think we should have five minutes before they are within docking range, unless they make a short jump."

"Arm the torpedoes and let that ship know that we're prepared to use them. Call Illium authorities, I'm not taking any chances with these guys."

"Aye aye." The pilot tapped a couple of commands into the cockpit console, and soon there was a whirring sound vibrating through the hull as the ship's disruptor torpedoes were prepped to fire. As the captain turned to leave and head for the crew's quarters to brief the merc team, he could hear the pilot recording the message for intersystem security to be sent over the nearest extranet beacon.

The security team were playing Skyllian Five when he arrived, and he was met with leisurely salutes and greetings. Having a human only crew with such a long rotation time gave way to a more at ease work relationship.

"Hey Robb, can I talk to you for a second?"

The older man nodded and huffed as he got up and followed the captain out of the room. Tapping a command on the omnitool, the mercenary shut the door behind them for privacy.

"We've got batarians headed to us on collision course. We have tried hailing them, but we're getting no response. We have armed our torpedoes in case they get too close and notified the authorities, but we should get ready anyway."

"Pirates, Cap'n?" The older man frowned, deep wrinkles spread from the corner of his eyes.

"I would suspect so, and if they don't change their course or hail us, they won't be around nearly enough to know, but if they do, will you be able to take care of them? I don't want to risk trying to escape while we still haven't discharged."

"Don't worry, Jerris. The lads and I'll show 'em how bad humans can be."

Robb turned and went into the room. A moment, later, the team emerged and headed for the armoury. Suddenly the pilot's voice came over the Intercom.

"Captain, the ship just sped up towards us, comms are being jammed. Permission to fire the torpedoes?"

"Permission granted, Fitch. Give'em hell."

The captain waited in silence as the whooshing sound of the launching torpedoes came and went. It wasn't long until the pilot spoke again:

"The torpedoes hit." An almost palpable air of relief swept over the group, "Wait, the ship is back on course, EMP resistant systems? Captain, they are firing on us! Taking evasive manoeuvres."

The intercom shut off as a siren started blaring, and the captain was followed by the returning security team to the airlock. The ship technician stopped working on a panel on the bridge and jogged to the safe spot in the cargo bay, far away from the ship's entrance. Jerris activated his omnitool and brought up a LADAR feed of the ship's surroundings. A call came through, it was the VI technician.

"Hey Jerris, what's going on? I thought I fucked up when the sirens started blaring."

"We have a probable case of the pirates, you should head for the cargo bay." The deck near the airlock was soon crowded by the merc security team, and the whirring of various mass accelerator weapons being primed could be heard over the siren. "Could you turn off the sirens on the main deck before you go? It's getting on my nerves."

"Of course, buddy. Should I put some music through the speakers while we're at it?"

"I'm seriously considering stopping at omega and leaving you there, Nicolas."

"You wouldn't! The ship's too big for there to be no me in it." The connection was cut off, and soon enough the sirens stopped blaring. The only sound that could be heard was the hum of the ship's life support systems and the beeping of the Captain's omnitool LADAR feed.

"Captain, the pirates fired an electrostatic torpedo that I can't evade. Brace for an EMP blast, I'm shutting down the generators pre-emptively." The pilot's voice came over the deck's PA speakers.

"Keep me posted, P."

The hum of the ship's systems died down, and fluorescent lights along the bridge's corridor floor lit up. After a couple of silent seconds, the generators powered up again. The EMP blast had come and gone.

"Systems back online…wait… Is that- Captain! The Ship's signature split in two! One is heading for the airlock and the other to the back of the ship, close to the cargo bay."

"They probably had a dormant ship being tugged along with the first one. Let's take half the team to the cargo bay, Captain." One of the mercs said as he pulled on some shoulders and left running with the new group.

"Go ahead, hurry up and get t-" There was a powerful blast on the side of the ship as the deck's starboard hull burst and the captain along with the pilot and most of the security team were spaced. It had been the impact of an empty ship repurposed for use as a battering ram. Kinetic barriers lifted to seal off the rupture, and the remaining mercenaries headed for the cargo bay immediately after a second blast shook the entire ship. This time the cargo bay had been breached, but it was the pirate ship, unloading a team of batarians onto the maze of containers and the unsuspecting ship engineer.

From within the VI core, Nicolas watched the main deck video feed in horror, and tapped a few commands into the console in front of him to bring up the virtual intelligence, Hal.

"Hal, give me vitals on the whole security team and the captain, and show me the cargo hold video feed."

There was no response, but a sidebar on the VI core console showed the status of the remaining security team, with half of the team dead, along with the captain. The video feed of the cargo hold came up with a gruesome image:

Fifteen batarians were met with little resistance as their assault rifle fire decimated the engineer, and they immediately shot the cameras out after checking the area. Nicolas covered his mouth and wondered what the hell he could do from where he was.

"Patch me through to the security team."

"Patching through, Nicolas."

"…This is Robb, go ahead Nicolas," came a raspy voice over the room's speakers.

"Robb, I've lost contact with the cargo hold, but I managed to see 15 pirates in there. Herman's dead. Can you take them out?"

"Yeah I'm pretty sure we can, keep us posted, lad."

The team of five came up to the cargo hold doors and formed up at both sides. Immediately after the door opened, one of them tossed a flash-bang grenade into the hold, but to their horror, a regular grenade rolled into the corridor where they were waiting.

Nicolas couldn't help but shout a quick "no" as the grenade's blast thundered through the console's speakers and the rest of the security team's vitals dropped to flat line.

"Hal, vent the cargo hold and get me the pilot."

"Mr. Fitch was spaced along with the captain. Venting cargo hold."

"Is there anyone else in the ship?"

"Negative, only the pirates. They managed to leave the cargo hold before it was vented."

"Shit, shit, shit! Um… Deactivate all kinetic barriers, open all doors except the VI core and vent the whole ship."

"Yes, sir."

After a few seconds of claustrophobic silence, the engineer spoke up again.

"Is anyone in the ship apart from me now?"

"Negative, but I am reading heat signatures in the pirate's cockpit."

Nicolas knew that if he did nothing, the pirates could come through the cargo hold prepared for another possible venting, and that the ships were probably joined through a docking sleeve in the cargo hold. If he could crash the ship into the pirate cockpit, he might be able to kill the remaining pirates.

"Hal, activate the port thrusters, I want to crash the ship into the pirates."

"Port thrusters, full throttle." Came a cheerful response from the console. It almost seemed as if the VI was having fun with all the destruction, which was disconcerting.

A deep rumbling resounded through the walls of the room as the ships came into contact, like a roll of thunder far, far away, and as the thrusters shut off, silence again.

"No heat signatures remaining in the pirate ship, Nicolas."

The engineer backed away from the console and slumped back against a wall, sliding down to the floor as his heart raced and his eyes teared up.

* * *

 **So, yeah.**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter. As I said before, any feedback is appreciated :)**

 **Chapters will be uploaded as fast as I can. I've had this chapter written down for quite some time, and I have the whole span of Mass effect 1 planned, but I wont be able to upload too frequently because of my studies.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Second chapter! I won't spoil anything for you, so enjoy! :)**

 **All characters, settings and themes belong to bioware, no copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

Nicolas looked up at the VI core's ceiling, wondering just how he got himself into this mess. His mind wandered back along the recent events, meeting the crew, meeting Hal, seeing Caleb after god knows how many years, and finally, to when he met Robbie.

…

He stood under the old monorail bridge. Surely of prothean origin, the single file of pillars stretched twenty meters into the air. Fresh graffiti on the white walls, soon to be washed off by Illium authorities. It was amazing how no one could make paint that would stick.

Nicolas looked around to see if anyone was around, and when he was satisfied with the deserted area, he produced a metallic pipe from his coat's inner pocket and a small jar with small bits of a blue plant inside. He twisted the lid and a hole with a microfilament net emerged. He shook the opening over the pipe, small green filaments falling into the bowl. Hiding the jar into his coat, he activated the lighter function of the omnitool and dragged a couple of breaths from the pipe. He puffed out small clouds of smoke and he heard the footsteps of someone approaching.

Nicolas turned to see a big, black haired and dark skinned man walking towards him. He seemed friendly, almost as if he wanted to accompany him.

"Hey man, wanna buy something a bit stronger?" The man showed him a small red bag: red sand.

Nicolas was taken aback by the sudden offer. That was something he definitely didn't want to try. "No thanks, man, I'm good."

The stranger turned and left as suddenly as he appeared, and walked a hundred meters or so down to the next pillar. Nicolas could see him as he sat down in the distance, and he lit his pipe again. After another two puffs, more footsteps came within Nicolas' earshot. He turned once more to see a man, old and wrinkled, yet muscular and clad in armour that looked like it had met many shootouts. He wasn't wearing security colours. Maybe a merc? The hair on his head was buzzed short, but he had small grey hairs as long as his day old beard dotting his scalp.

"Say, kid," a deep raspy voice vibrated in Nicolas' ears, "what are you smoking?" A knowing smile spread across the man's face.

"Just a little kromby. Want some, buddy?" Nicolas stretched his arm out towards the man, who was sitting down beside him.

They shared the rest of the pipe in silence, looking out at Nos Astra's clear, starry sky. When it was done, and they got a bit dizzy, the man broke the silence.

"Kid, you know where I can buy red sand?"

"Funny you should ask, that guy over there just offered me some."

"Do you know him?" at that, Nicolas shook his head. "Ok, I'll go talk to him real quick. Want me to get you some?"

"No thanks man, I'm good."

The man grunted as he got up, and walked over to the next pillar. Nicolas could make out the old man standing next to the red sand dealer, they were talking. Blue flickers of light emanated from the sitting figure, and Nicolas' gaze drifted back to the stars. Shortly after, two loud bangs brought him back from his daze, and his eyes darted to the other pillar to see an unmistakeable blood stain on the white material and the old man walking back towards him. His heart started racing as he considered running away from that place. _He has a gun, you won't get to run five steps before he kills you. Just talk your way out of this._ He waited for the man to be near again, his hands shaking and his legs asleep. He wasn't going _anywhere_.

"Hey kid, did you see anything back there?"

"No, I just heard a bang."

"No you didn't."

"No I didn't."

The man chuckled and smiled at the shaking Nicolas. After a moment he extended his hand, which Nicolas took hesitantly and shook firmly, "The name's Robert, call me Robb. The guy over there was selling bad drugs, got a lot of people killed with that red sand, so I was payed to make him stop. I work private security here in Illium, or wherever they pay better. What do you do?"

"I smoke," Robbie bellowed a strong laugh at that, "and I work on VIs, maintenance mostly. I'm also a mechanic, if need be."

"Ain't that weird, I've been hired to take care of a ship that needs a VI technician. How much kromby you got with you, lad?"

"I'd say about enough for a couple of weeks but, ummm, it's back home."

"Tell you what," the man produced a bag the size of an apple from a pouch on his thigh, brimming with little blue leaves, "You put this in with the rest, I tell you how to get in touch with me boss Caleb, and we get high on the ship. Deal?"

"Well… I need a job, and you seem like a nice guy. If this is Caleb Jerris you're talking about, I'm definitely in." Nicolas laughed nervously as he remembered Caleb, his old friend from university. He'd heard the guy was working in the Attican traverse, and there really weren't many humans in Illium, so it was worth a shot.

"Good lad, and yes, it is Caleb Jerris! You clever clogs, you!" Robb grunted as he sat back down beside Nicolas, as he opened the bag and refilled the pipe.

…

"What's the damage, Hal?" Nicolas' voice was weak and gravelly after two hours of silence, the death of the whole crew and the captain left the technician in shock, but he had to pull himself together if he was to make it out of the mess he was in. He tried not to think about the dead pirates.

The ship's schematics came up on the console in front of the lone crew member, highlighting various areas in the top and bottom decks in red. Nicolas got up, grunting as initially his legs were slow to respond, and walked over to examine the red areas.

"There is extensive damage on the starboard cockpit, cargo bay hull, comms array, and the main generators were disconnected after the crash, emergency generators are running smoothly, but unless the main ones are fixed within ten hours, the ship's primary systems will start shutting down."

"So I have to get the main generators running as soon as possible. Can you give me a feed of the generator room?"

The large generators came up on the screen, a large hole could be seen on the starboard wall with a piece of what could only be the pirate ship's hull jutting through the hole, probably cutting most of the high amperage wires that then spread out to the ship's various systems.

"Looks easy enough. Hal, can you pressurize just the direct path to the armoury?" he knew that he could find an HEV (Hazardous Environment Suit) and a blowtorch in there.

"Pressurizing."

"If anything happens on either of the ships, let me know."

"Of course Nicolas, logging you out."

He waited for the lock on the VI core to turn green and hovered his hand over the display, opening the door to the ship's pantry, a corridor with boxes packed with dehydrated food rations on either side. As he walked along the sealed containers, he came across a box full of protein reinforced fruit bars and his stomach grumbled, complaining after hours of neglect. The mess hall was outside the pantry, and there was the appliances needed to make the little plastic covered food bricks appetizing. Grabbing one, Nicolas headed for the next door and opened it to find the mess hall in a sorry state. Many tables were turned over after the venting, half the lights weren't functioning anymore, and shattered plates and glasses covered most of the deck. Sweeping his feet along the floor so as to not step on anything sharp, he made his way to the Microwave Rehydration unit, and inserted the fruit brick. As the machine began functioning, some lights flickered and shut off. _The kinetic barriers in the upper deck must be draining the generator's power_ , Nicolas made a mental note to find the HEV suit as soon as possible. After a minute, the machine rolled out a tube of dark red paste enveloped in a thin layer of edible plastic. Nicolas touched it to test the temperature, and soon departed towards the cargo hold. _I'll find the armoury on the way_. He started chewing on the corner of his midnight snack, at least to make some noise in the dead silence of the empty ship.

The minute walk to the armoury was uneventful, as was expected, and Nicolas entered to find some Devlon Industries armour crates stacked in the back. The weapons rack was empty where assault rifles would've been, but there was a separate rack underneath, full of a variety of tools, like pneumatic drills, crowbars of different sizes and blowtorches. He separated a blowtorch from the bunch and went over to the armour crates to see if they hadn't been taken by the mercenaries. The last crate opened to reveal an untouched set of armour, which Nicolas pulled out of the container immediately. Stripping down to his underwear he sorted the components on a table set against one of the walls. There was a first layer consisting of a jump suit which was designed to act as a medigel distributor and monitor for vital signs. Its texture was soft and puffy, but once the suit was completely assembled, it would saturate with medigel and become smooth to the touch. The second layer was an airtight fabric woven with Kevlar and a titanium infused Teflon fabric to protect the wearer from hazardous environments. Lastly, ceramic plates were to be clasped on top of the second layer, which contained an on-board computer to interface with the user and a kinetic barrier module on the belt, mainly used for protection in firefights. With a huff, Nicolas began pulling the first layer on.

When the last plate was clasped onto Nicolas' left forearm, he felt a static discharge on his back and the second layer pulled together to become skin-tight while medigel spread from his chest plate into the first layer. A hologram projector showed up on the forearm, syncing up to his omnitool and with a beep, the suit's life support systems and shield came online.

"I have pressurized the path to the generator room, Nicolas." Hal's voice came from just over the door as the lock cycled to green, "Don't forget the blowtorch," Nicolas spun on his heel right as he was about to open the door.

"I never did, Hal." Nicolas smiled to himself as he left the armoury towards the generator room.

Hal's voice called from inside the room, "Or the helmet," with a huff, Nicolas spun back around. Caleb's humorous programming ran deep, why did he hire Nicolas in the first place?

The generator room was a long room that preceded the mass effect core, above the cargo deck and near the stern of the ship. Tanks of Hydrogen and Oxygen were stored underneath the floors and combined in the generators to make electricity for powering the mass effect core and all the other systems within the ship. As the video feed showed, the main cables going towards the distribution nodes had been severed by fragments of the pirate ship jutting through the hull and the emergency generators sent auxiliary power to the ship life support systems through fail-safe bypasses.

"So, Hal, the main thing would be to cut those pirate ship chunks off and re-attach the cables, right?"

"Yes."

Nicolas set the blowtorch on the floor and put his helmet on. The magnetic seems of the helmet snapped shut against the neck mesh of the suit, and a short hiss sounded within the suit as the respirator activated. The helmet synced up with the suit's life support systems, and a minimalistic HUD showing canister air pressure and suit integrity flickered on.

"I won't be able to move those pieces with this gravity… Hal, could you depressurize this room and turn off artificial gravity?"

"Yes."

"I swear I'm gonna need to talk to an organic soon."

The room hissed as the atmosphere gradually descended into vacuum and a weird feeling welled up in Nicolas' stomach as his feet stayed on the floor due to the magnetized boots, but the rest of his body tried to wonder up into the ceiling. Catching the now floating blowtorch, he walked along the floor and then the wall up to where a structural beam came through the wall, torn cables on either side. Cutting the beam off and reattaching the cables was don with minimal effort, and a portion of the beam was used to cover up the hole it left. Once Nicolas was done welding and sealing the hole, he walked back down to the floor and with a couple of commands on his omnitool, the room pressurized and gravity came back to give peace to his inner organs.

"Right, now we just have to turn on the main generators and umm… what next?"

"I don't have the capacity to dictate the future course of action for the ship."

"I wasn't asking you, Hal," Nicolas slapped the visor of his helmet and walked back towards the mess hall as the main generators came back online.

…

"Nicolas, I have detected a heat signature from within the pirate vessel."

"What?" Nicolas dropped a half finished ration he had recently heated up, "How did you not see it before? Is it a pirate?"

"It is an organic life form, apparently it was in cryo stasis until now."

"Do we still have guns in the ship?"

"Maybe there are still some at the entrance to the cargo hold. Surveillance systems are down, and most of the cargo was lost during the venting."

"Oh fuck my life!" Nicolas ran towards the cargo hold. If he was going to get rid of that last pirate, he needed to do it before he woke up completely.

Only a few containers were left, tethers straining to keep them in place at the corners of the cargo hold farthest away from the blast doors at the end of the ship. Kinetic barriers held the atmosphere in from a two meter wide hole on the hull twenty meters from the room's entrance. When Nicolas ran into the hold and started looking around for a weapon, he found a pirate's severed leg tucked against one of the containers, a gun holstered to the thigh. After a couple of minutes of gagging inside the helmet and prying the holster open, Nicolas walked towards the hole, gun pointing in front of him, hands shaking. The hole led to open space, the pirate vessel floating five meters outside, a half destroyed boarding chute decreasing the distance to a meter of vacuum.

"Hal, depressurize the cargo bay and deactivate the kinetic barriers, please?"

The generator's low pitch humming was muffled by the loud hiss of air seeping into space and soon all sound died off as it was completely sucked out of the cargo hold and the kinetic barriers faded out of existence, opening to the pitch black void dotted by distant stars. The only sound Nicolas could hear was his heartbeat and unsteady breathing. Nicolas climbed to the edge of the hole and hoisted himself through, the artificial gravity loosening the grip on his body as he ventured out onto the outside of the hull. The pirate ship seemed to be completely deactivated, and there was a gaping hole on the side where the Langdon had crashed.

"Hal, could you show me where the pirate is?"

A yellow dot showed up on his helmet's HUD, hovering at half the distance between stem and stern. If Nicolas was to get to him, he'd have to enter through the hole near the front. He prepared his legs and aimed for a jump, deactivated the mag boots with a quick tap on his ankles and took off. Reaching the pirate vessel, his hands supported his landing, and the mag-boots activated automatically when they came into contact with the pirate hull. He walked as slowly as he could towards the makeshift entrance and descended into the ship.

Everything on the inside was half destroyed. From what he could tell, he was looking at the bridge and toilets, clouds of frozen water crystals lined most of the surfaces near sources of water. Shards of metal and twisted structural beams floated around, held inside the broken hull until the gravitational systems shut down. A blast door led the way towards the back of the ship, and upon hovering his hand on the lock, air seeped from the seams until the room inside was at vacuum. The door opened to a hallway with the barracks at the very end with the glowing yellow dot inside.

Step by step, Nicolas' heart was racing and his head pounded with every heartbeat. Every instinct in his head told him to run away and jump into space, put the biggest amount of distance between himself and this place. As he inched towards the barracks' blast door, he nearly dropped to the ground when the door shut behind him and pressure was restored to normal. The walls made of grimy metal panels that could be easily slid off to perform maintenance between the walls and the floor was dotted with old blood, pieces of food and vomit. Nicolas felt lucky that his helmet was still on, and he repeated one phrase in his mind over and over: _It had to be batarians._

Once he reached the door, it was a long time before he mustered the courage to let one hand off the gun and touch the door's control panel. It whooshed open to show a line of cryo-pods. A humanoid figure laid on the floor, not moving, only breathing, dripping cryogenics fluid. It turned out to be a quarian in a grey enviro suit, and one of its legs was swollen at the ankle.

Nicolas inched closer, gun pointed at the head, a voice in his mind told him to pull the trigger immediately and be done with it, but it was unlikely he would hit anything with how he was shaking. The quarian was evidently not a threat, and it took some time for Nicolas to notice.

"C-can you talk?" Nicolas stuttered as the quarian held its breath and turned its head to reveal a cracked visor with glowing eyes staring at him.

A feminine voice crackled through damaged speakers in the quarian's faceplate, "Please, don't shoot, I'm not with the pirates and I'm unarmed. Are the batarians gone?"

Nicolas lowered his gun and sighed, "Yes, I'm pretty sure they're all dead. Who are you?"

"My name is Seesa nar-" she coughed a couple of times and pressed a button on the faceplate, letting red liquid drip to the floor, "nar' Idenna. Who are you?"

Nicolas assessed the state of the quarian girl in front of him, the blood she flushed out showed she had a punctured lung and her leg was probably broken. Maybe Hal could help her in the Langdon's med bay.

"I'm Nicolas Baker, the batarian pirates attacked me, but they're all dead now. Are you good to move? I may be able to patch you up in my ship" _Or what's left of it, anyway._

"Bosh'tets kidnapped me from Ondeste. They've kept me in stasis and probably wanted to ransom me to the Fleet. As if we had much to offer anyway." She coughed more and vented more blood from the faceplate, and then extended a hand, "lead the way."

Nicolas left the gun on the floor and helped the quarian up, she hissed when her bad leg touched the ground and draped her shoulder over Nicolas for support. When she had secure footing, he scooped the gun up and helped her limp towards the hallway.

"Is your suit ruptured? There's gonna be a vacuum after we're out of the hallway."

"No, I'm fine. Oh wait-" Seesa brought a hand up to test the crack on her visor and pointed to it, "Do you have omnigel or something for this?"

"Yeah, hold on to this." He handed the gun to Seesa and realized his foolishness a split second after letting go of it, but she lowered the gun, waiting for the damaged visor to be fixed.

Bringing his omnitool up to the visor, omnigel epoxy was flash produced and spread over the crack. He smoothed the paste out over it to make sure it wouldn't leak and held his hand out towards the gun, which Seesa retuned silently.

The jump back to the Langdon was easier than the previous portion of the trip, as Seesa's leg wasn't under so much pressure in the zero-g environment. When Nicolas and Seesa entered through the hole in the cargo bay, the kinetic barriers activated behind them and pressure was slowly restored. Nicolas called out to the VI, "Hal, I need you to pressurize the med bay and help me take care of Seesa."

"Pressurizing and sterilizing. Nicolas, my healthcare libraries do not include quarian manuals, and the long range comms are down from the crash, so I have no contact with the extranet."

"We'll have to figure something out, I don't' think she'll be getting any better with time. What do you think, Seesa?"

"Just get me somewhere I can lie down please?" the quarian sounded impatient and coughed every once in a while, venting blood each time, "Keelah, let's move quicker."

They took the service elevator to a hallway between the generator room and the mess hall. The med bay was half way between the two rooms and upon entering the room began a short sterilization process. Seesa was laid down on a bed where automated medical equipment assessed her condition.

"There is a pen sized puncture wound on the lung, probable cause: Impact on ribcage temporarily dislodged last rib and caused puncture. Severely sprained ankle. If it were a human, immobilizing the limb would be the optimal course of action. Due to cryo-stasis, the wounds have not healed since they were made." Hal announced after a couple of minutes.

"What is the human treatment for a punctured lung?" asked Seesa, sitting up to vent more blood into a small sink beside the bed.

"Administration of supplementary oxygen. The wound is internal and small, and there is little pleural space, which seems to be healing quickly now that the effects of cryo-stasis are gone," the VI explained as an oxygen mask descended from the ceiling and a plastic cast was flash produced around Seesa's ankle.

Nicolas crossed his arms and smiled under the helmet, "well, looks like you're gonna be OK. I'll go check if we have some dextro food in the pantry. Don't go anywhere!"

Once Nicolas was walking towards the mess hall, Hal's voice came in through the helmet's headphones, "Nicolas, that quarian wasn't a pirate?"

"I trust her, Hal, why would she have been that beaten up? Let's just focus on getting the ship running. Whose ship is it now, anyway?"

"It was registered in the Terminus systems to Caleb, so it has no legal owner in Citadel space."

"Well then, do you have a problem if I keep it?"

"I am a VI, I don't have problems… It is worth mentioning, however, that the Migrant Fleet has been visiting nearby systems."

"I think we should try contacting them before they decide to go elsewhere. Can you get short range radio working?"

"Yes."

"OK, then. Plot a course for the migrant fleet. How soon until we can leave?"

"The eezo core is online, so whenever you give the order."

"Let's not waste any more time. Next stop: Migrant fleet! Say, what are we gonna do about the delivery we were supposed to make?"

"The Langdon's insurance policy dictates that it will not be held responsible for loss of cargo should pirates enter the ship."

The sides of Nicolas' mouth started curving ever so slightly upwards, "Dibs on whatever's in those last containers."

* * *

 **This chapter was a bit slower. I like writing more action-y stuff, but I feel that if I saturate the story with explosions and gunshots and violence, then it'll just feel watered down. Still no characters from canon, but we'll get there!**

 **That's it! let me know what you think, feedback is always appreciated!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Third chapter! Enjoy!**

 **All characters, settings and themes belong to bioware, no copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Chapter 3

"The Langdon will be arriving at the location of the Migrant Fleet in three days, Nicolas," said Hal through Nicolas' helmet.

"Alright, so that gives me time to convince Seesa into letting me talk to them."

Nicolas looked around the bridge, kinetic barriers keeping the atmosphere from escaping through a meter wide hole in the starboard hull. Stars floated by as the ship travelled at FTL towards their destination. Even if the ship wasn't on top conditions, it was space-worthy, and there was nothing that couldn't be fixed in a couple of hours, but his limbs felt heavy, his shoulders ached, and his nose had been itching for the longest time. Placing a hand under his chin and releasing a clasp, the suit respirators deactivated and the magnetic seams released the helmet. The suit's second layer was coarse so his gloves were sufficient to scratch the tip of his nose.

Before meeting up with Seesa, there was one thing he absolutely needed, so once he entered the hall leading to the medbay and turned the opposite direction, entering the crew quarters.

He was a little disconcerted to see that it was all a mess from the venting. Bunk beds had been ripped from the walls and all of the crew's personal belongings were strewn around the floor. Finding the kromby was going to be a nightmare. Rummaging around a pile with a couple of his belongings he found a pack of cigarettes. _They'll have to do._ Nicolas stuffed them in a pouch on his thigh and headed for the medbay.

The door slid open to reveal Seesa lying down on the medical bed. A transparent tube hanged from the wall and connected to her face plate, feeding her oxygen, there was still some dry blood in the crevices of the plate itself but her breathing was steady and easy. Her sprained leg was stretched out on the bed while the other leg hung lazily over the edge, and the Omnigel epoxy had been scratched off the visor.

"Aren't you gonna get sick or something if your visor is cracked?" Nicolas twirled the warm dextro ration tube he had found in the pantry in his hand and tossed it over to Seesa, who caught it in one hand.

"It's airtight enough for non-vacuum. The blob of omnigel was driving me crazy, anyway. So what are my options? Do I get off at the nearest colony, or…"

"Umm actually… the ship's records before the comms array failed said that the Migrant Fleet was some three days away, so we're heading to that location for now."

"WHAT? But- but," Seesa removed the oxygen feed and replaced it with the ration tube, "Mmmm, this is good! But I can't go back to the Fleet! Not without a pilgrimage gift! Plus, they'll blow the ship to pieces if we don't have comms!"

"Well what else are we supposed to do? I've got an empty ship with no owner, no money to make repairs and I'm not about to become a trading entrepreneur! Do you mind if I have a cigarette?"

"Well then sell the ship! I bet someone has money for a cargo ship lying around. Nicolas, I have a facemask made to keep even the smallest virus out of my air supply, you think smoke bothers me?"

"I was just asking, jeez," Nicolas scoffed and lit the cigarette, taking a long drag and puffing a big cloud out that dissipated quickly into the ventilation system, "We still have three days to think it over. Until then you can`t really walk, let alone breathe heavily, so how about you tell me about yourself in the meantime?"

"What are we at Westerlund news now?"

"Yes, and I'm Khalisa al'Jilani. Come on, give me something to go on. Have you got anything else better to do?"

Seesa let out a small laugh followed by a raspy cough, "Oh, Keelah, don't make me cough. OK, so you know how us quarians have lived on ships since before you guys had computers, right? Well there's not much more to say about that. Ummm, I was the first-born of the Idenna, a decommissioned batarian cruiser that the fleet obtained some twenty five years ago. You know how ships in the fleet have political power depending on their population?" at this, Nicolas shook his head and Seesa sighed, "So decisions within the fleet are made by vote, and that vote is made by the ship's captain. The vote's strength is based on the population of said ship. So, this captain Ysin'Mal wanted more political power and did the simplest thing to do, he started accepting quarians returning from their pilgrimage, without even looking at the gifts they brought back! The ship was soon overcrowded, and one day I decided that I couldn't live in it anymore. I left on my pilgrimage two years early and I've been two years gone, learning and working where I can. I was working as a prospector in Ondeste, then as a mechanic." She detached the tube from the faceplate and tossed it back at Nicolas, who fumbled with it and almost dropped it.

Bending down to get the cigarette he dropped while trying to catch the tube, Nicolas spoke up, "When did the pirates show up?"

Seesa froze at that and looked away from him, "I _really_ don't want to talk about that, if it's alright with you."

"Sorry I brought it up."

Seesa shook her head, "It's alright. You got attacked by the same guys, right? How did that come to happen, anyway?"

"I was the VI technician and the ship was headed to Ondeste to sell mining equipment. We were discharging the ship when the pirates showed up. Punched a couple of holes in the hull and everyone but me was spaced. When the pirates were all in the ship, I vented it and now I'm here."

"At least you didn't get hurt," Seesa lied back down, reattached the oxygen tube to her face plate and yawned, "Funny how after god knows how long in cryo, I'm still sleepy."

"I'm dead tired too, so I think I'll head into the crew quarters to get some sleep. Tomorrow we'll see what we can fix from inside the hull so yeah," Nicolas started walking towards the medbay doors and lifted a hand on the way out, "goodnight!"

Seesa called out before the doors shut, "Good night, Khalisa!"

As Nicolas walked back to the other room he could hear coughs from within the medbay. When he entered the crew quarters he was once again disappointed by the mess, and walked around, tip-toeing between all the random objects covering most of the floor towards a bed still attached to the wall. He noticed the lockers for each crewmember's belongings were unlocked, not like any of them would miss their stuff, so Nicolas' curiosity got the best of him so he started searching them after getting out of the bathroom, brushing his teeth.

Most had a couple of bottles, pistol holsters and random junk that the mercs kept. The last one he opened was Caleb's locker. His hand hovered above the door panel and he hesitated before looking into what his friend might keep. The door squeaked open to reveal a small metallic suitcase, a little lock with a metal key inside sealed it shut. Nicolas scanned it with his omnitool for booby-traps of any sort but found nothing, so he opened it to find a paper folder full of papers and printed out photos of a large space ship which resembled the Langdon.

"Huh." Nicolas took the papers to a bunk bed and began reading through the folder, "…. Hijack plans?"

 _Three months ago._

"You do realize that this guy is gonna have substantial security, and I can't just put my team up for a situation where we'll be outnumbered by at least five to one?"

"I told you already, that's why I brought the tools we'd need so that being outnumbered won't be an issue. C'mon Robb, you know I always think ahead." Caleb was sipping on a mug of burnt coffee in a small diner in Illium. It'd been a long time since he contacted Robert, but when he needed something done, he was the only person he could trust to get results.

"What tools are we talking about anyway? Not like you can magically deactivate their shields or something of the sort."

"Of course not! But let me ask you a question," Caleb leaned forward and set the coffee down, "are kinetic barriers designed to stop knives?"

Robb breathed from the cigarette that had been previously forgotten on the ashtray and blew a big cloud of smoke into Caleb's face. When he spoke, his tone was much lower and calm, making him sound menacing to a degree Caleb had never experienced before, "Look, lad, I like you and all but if you're gonna be pulling my leg -"

Caleb quickly got to the point, "What about pre-mass effect rounds?" At this, Robb moved back and rested his back on the sofa he sat on.

"You've got pre-contact guns? Don't be a dolt. Having weapons that should be in a museum will definitely get their attention."

"Plastic guns can bypass security checks, and we should be able to sneak bullets in just fine." Caleb could see he was getting closer to convincing Robb.

"Alright," Robb raised his hands and blew out more smoke, "say it works and we get that ship of yours… how much are you offering _us_?"

"We refurbish the ship and register it to our name. Then you and your team get 50% on future business, and you'll just have to work security." Now that the offer was made, Caleb sipped on the coffee and studied how Robb's face changed as he thought the offer over. Finally, he took a long pull from the cigarette and put it out on the ashtray.

"I'll have to talk with the lads about this. Send me something detailed so I can read it over and I'll call you."

Caleb opened a metallic briefcase he had underneath the table and produced a paper folder brimming with papers and pictures. Robb had been distracted rummaging in a pocket for a cigarette and he squinted his eyes at Caleb, lighting another cigarette. Caleb handed the folder to him and he looked back and forth from the folder back to Caleb until he spoke, "What the bloody hell is this?"

Caleb rolled his eyes, "It's called paper. Anybody can hack into a datapad and read the contents, but if it's printed out, it's untraceable."

"Sounds like an expensive precaution to me." Robb grunted as he flicked the cigarette on the ashtray's edge.

"That's easy for you to say, but I don't want some batarian on our tail when we recycle a cargo ship and don't cover our tracks properly."

"Whatever, lad. Stick around the next few days, eh?"

"Yeah, yeah, you have my number, Robb."

The mercenary pushed up from the table with open palms and gulped down an untouched beer at his side. He shook Caleb's hand firmly, squeezed hard and walked away. Caleb stayed for a couple more cups and then left too. The horizon was orange and faded into deep blue as Caleb looked up at the star-less sky. He got to a storage building and walked in, expertly navigating the maze of corridors lined with storage units for hire. Finding the one he was renting out, he entered the code into the door panel and it opened to reveal a mattress and two suitcases in one corner and a crate as big as him on the other. Inside the crate was a cruiser class eezo pellet. Caleb's life savings and most his belongings had been spent buying it, and now he was going to sell it at a fraction of the price.

But there was a catch.

The owner of the cargo ship was a batarian operating in council space. Anybody with a business mind-set knew that council taxes were excessive to say the least, and the batarian in question felt particularly offended by this. His ship's eezo core was at the end of its lifecycle, after many years of charge and discharge, the refined eezo pellet needed a not-so-cheap replacement. Caleb, having heard of this from old batarian contacts, took the opportunity quietly and devised a plan: he was going to borrow the cargo ship and keep it. A comfortable arrangement was made with the ship's owner. Caleb would take the eezo outside council space, five parsecs away from the galactic disk, and they would meet to do the transaction out there. Barely legal, but if it was tax-free, then it was worth the buyer's time.

Caleb paced around the storage unit and closed the door. He started undressing, getting ready for bed as he went over the details of the hijacking.

First, Robb and his men would show up at the storage unit. They would all transport the crate to Caleb's small ship, where they would all barely fit. In the shuttle, there were eleven plastic handguns, twelve plastic casing low velocity explosive rounds for each. The men would gather all the rounds into their respective plastic clips and hide them between the crate and the crate carriage. Each member of the team would hide his or her gun in a personal tool bag. They would all take the ship from Illium and head five parsecs perpendicularly in relation to the galactic disk and begin pinging at regular intervals, at a small cluster of solar systems that had been previously arranged by the buyer. Once the batarian arrived on his cargo ship, Caleb would introduce the team as the eezo core technitians, and they would head to the core room with the batarian and begin installing the eezo pellet.

Caleb's omnitool rang, it was Robb.

"Hey Caleb, so you're telling me that the batarians will scan us for metal, micro eezo drives and our pockets, but they won't check the bags?"

"Why would they? He asked for the installation to be included."

"Ok, then, the guys say they're in. You better deliver on your promise. See you in two days." Robb hung up. Caleb lowered his arm and continued going over the plan.

After installing the pellet, the ship's eezo "fingerprint" would change, essentially changing the identification of the ship. Caleb fell asleep after remembering this step.

Two days later, Caleb was turning the last bolt installing the eezo pellet. The generators would be connected to the reactor once the team was out. Wiping a drop of sweat from his brow, he turned to look at Robb, crouching beside him, they nodded at each other and the whole team in unison grabbed a magazine and loaded their pistols. They stood up and Caleb called out from within the reactor, "We're almost done here!"

"Good! Come on out and we can celebrate or something!" the batarian voice was unmistakeable, as were the intentions behind it. His batarian security team was scattered throughout the ship, but they stayed armed even after the security check. Caleb smelled a trap, as did Robb, but they came prepared, and Caleb had an ace up his sleeve.

In a single file, they began walking out of the eezo core. Five batarians were waiting on the outside, five more in the generator room, and ten in the mess hall. All those batarians were armed to the teeth and would soon rush the core if something went wrong. Again, Caleb had an ace up his sleeve. Robb was the first one to walk out. His weapon drawn, raised and safety off, was pointed to the spot between a batarian mercenary's eyes. On the pull of the trigger, a strong kickback pushed his arm upwards and the batarian on the other side of the room crumpled to the floor, dead. Four of Robb's team followed close behind, each taking a previously discussed target and shot, one bullet each, and made one corpse each. Caleb looked in awe at the expertise of these people and their lethality. The sixth member walked out of the core and shot a flash fabricated wire at the buyer and delivered an electric shock, immobilizing him as the seventh dashed forward to restrain him. Once the handcuffs were on, the door to the reactor room whooshed open, letting five batarians in. Mercenaries number eight, nine, ten, Caleb and Robb killed one for each, their bullets crossing the batarian shields effortlessly, while a few mass accelerated rounds bounced off their own.

"The rest will come in with grenades, Caleb. We messed up, man! Your plastic guns can't shield us from grenades. Not in this room!" Robb paced around the mass effect core room, his voice getting higher and higher to a panicked shout, "This was _not_ supposed to end this way, man! You underestimated the batarian!"

Caleb shot a bullet at Robb's feet and stopped his pacing, "ROBB, Robb, Robb. I have it all under control," He raised his left arm and spoke into his omnitool, "Hal, vent the whole ship except the eezo core. Do it now."

A masculine synthesized voice filled the space in the room, "Yes, Caleb," the door to the corridor shut and the lock cycled to red. A whooshing sound could be heard outside the door for a couple of seconds. Then, silence.

"Wha- what," Robb took a step back from the door and fell to the floor, "What the _bloody hell_ was that?"

"That, my dear Robb, was the ace under my sleeve. Hal is a VI I stole off a quarian in the terminus systems. He claimed it was an AI, but I'm still not sure. He is pretty good at hacking into ships silently, though."

"And when were you planning on telling me this?" Robb began standing up again, facing Caleb.

"When it was too late for you to turn back."

Robb looked at him with a blank stare, his mouth opened and closed, searching for words to say, but none came. The rest of the team sat down on the floor, the ship was silent for minutes, only the distant humming of the generators could be heard. The long silence was interrupted by the now stirring batarian. Caleb walked over to him and activated the batarian's omnitool. His four eyes looked up to Caleb and switched from one eye to the other. His voice was weak as he spoke, "Why am I still alive?"

"I need you alive to transfer the money for the pellet to my account," Caleb stated with a calm tone. His omnitool pinged and he stood up, when he turned around, Robb walked over and killed the batarian. He raised his left arm again, "Hal, seal the hull of the ship and pressurize."

"Pressurizing." As soon as Hal spoke, the noise from the generators returned, making the ship seem to have come to life after being dead for ages.

Caleb walked to the door, beckoning for the team of mercenaries to follow him, "Now we have to take this to a repair shop. Plant explosives on non-essential parts of the hull and blow some holes out, we need the ship to appear damaged."

As he walked towards the bridge, he went over the last steps to the plan. Once the holes were blown, they would register and fix the ship in the Terminus systems. After that, they would head to Illium and offer their transport services to anybody willing to pay. Since they didn't need to make returns in the beginning, they could offer low prices to gain reputation, and they would be doing big jobs for big cash in no time. They would need good insurance.

…

 _Present time_

Nicolas looked up to the wall in front of him. All the steps, so specific, everything so engineered and studied. Caleb was a genius, a murderer and a thief. It was weird how he could be so different to how Nicolas remembered him, and his stomach felt weird and twisted when Caleb's face came to mind. At the very end of the report, scribbled in red ink, it read " _Everything went as planned"._ Nicolas sighed and laid down, dropping the folder to the floor.

Staring at the roof, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but in the end he just let out one short laugh.

"Son of a _bitch._ "

* * *

 **So that was the third chapter. I hope you liked the more action oriented end. I felt that if Seesa spilled all the beans too early, she would seem way too trusting for a someone who captive by pirates, so more of her backstory will come up in the following chapters.I realize that this one was a bit shorter, but I preferred to end it where my mind felt it had to, rather than stretch it out.  
**

 **Well that's all for now, I'm gonna start working on the next chapter tomorrow!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter number 4!**

 **All characters, settings and themes belong to bioware, no copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Nicolas woke up to the sound of rustling clothes and junk being tossed around. He lifted his head and turned to see Seesa rummaging around the mess in the crew quarters.

"Can this wait maybe half an hour?" Nicolas yawned and stretched his arms, sitting up on the hard mattress.

"It's after lunch time, and I had nothing else to do. The VI won't talk to me like it talks to you so I made myself busy," Seesa stated simply as she tossed clothes behind her, inspected little pieces of junk the old crew left behind and then tossed them away too, "Are you aware that there is a leg lying around in the cargo hold?"

"Yeah I was going to get around to spacing that eventually," Nicolas got up and walked over to the quarian. He joined in to scavenge for anything of interest, "Find anything cool?"

"You left your gun lying around, so I found a holster to match," she pointed at said gun in the corner of the room, secured within a hard plastic holster with a magnetic suit-attachment, she never let her attention off her scavenging, "I found some omnitools with a couple thousand credits in them, so I left half for you, unless you have something to say about that."

"Did you happen to find one belonging to a Robert Pearson?" Nicolas gave up trying to find something useful in the pile of junk and stood up. Without looking, Seesa snatched an omnitool up from the pile and tossed it to him. It was Robb's.

"It's cracked open and I deactivated the passcodes, you can look through everything he has."

"Oh, what the hell, not like I have anything to do for the rest of the two days."

Robb was definitely a renowned mercenary in Illium. It seemed like his reputation made him a valuable employee, since they seemed to hire him as a loan shark whenever he was there. Nicolas read absentmindedly through Robb's notes and contacts list as Seesa deposited half the loot into his account. He copied most of the information into his own omni and spent the better part of an hour looking at Seesa go through everything inside the crew quarters.

"You know, Seesa," Nicolas chewed on his lower lip, Seesa seemed not to be paying attention, "I don't think I can keep this ship," Seesa's hands stopped moving and she slowly looked up at him, "Too much has happened on it, you know?"

Her bright eyes blinked twice before she spoke, "What are you getting at, Nicolas?"

"Well I was thinking that with the money you've got now, you could buy empty containers and make good living space in the cargo hold. Since the Fleet has had population problems, another ship could come in handy as a pilgrimage gift, right?"

"You can't be serious. What's in it for you?" Seesa stood up, favouring her bad leg, she rested her hands on her hips.

"Well, I don't have a job right now, and I figured if I gave you the ship, your people could give me a place to crash… maybe?" Nicolas shrugged as he looked at Seesa, which didn't move, considering the offer. She began limping around the room, a hand tugging on the grey shoal that covered her head.

It was a long time of silence aside from Seesa's footsteps moving the clutter and the constant hum of the ship's systems until she spoke again, "What's the catch? Are Illium authorities going to come after the ship and charge us with theft?"

"Since the ship was registered in the Terminus, it follows its 'law', so technically, I am the owner. Once we get comms working again, I'll declare the pirate attack and call off any rescue efforts Illium authorities might have sent, though I doubt they even received our distress call. Look, Seesa, I'm really just trying to get rid of this responsibility. I just want to live comfortably and be of use. If you guys can take me in, at least for a while, then I'm happy." Nicolas stood up from the bed and walked towards Seesa, who stopped pacing around the room, when they were at arm's reach, she studied his face, looking for a sign of treachery.

"Why wouldn't you just sell it to someone? Why would you want to live in the migrant fleet?"

"Do you have any idea of how much paperwork I would have to do to sell this ship in Citadel space? No way am I going to the Terminus to sell it, they'll eat me alive. I don't know why but I want to learn about the quarian people, is that a bad thing?" Nicolas turned away to walk out the door and looked back at Seesa before leaving, "I'm getting something to eat. Do you want the fucking ship or not?"

Seesa smiled under her visor at Nicolas' exasperation, "Don't walk too fast, I'm going to get something to eat too. And you know what? Sure, I can take care of the Langdon for you."

Nicolas sighed, walking to the mess hall with Seesa catching up, "Great, but now getting rid of that leg will be your responsibility." He earned a laugh and an elbow to the arm.

A day and an antenna fix later, the Langdon had arrived at a small uncharted system. They were a couple of FTL hours away from populated planets, but the Migrant Fleet had stopped here, mining an asteroid belt in the farther reaches of the system. As the Landon approached, Seesa limped up to the cockpit to open communications for her return. Nicolas sat at the mess hall, finishing his lunch, when Hal spoke over the intercom, "Nicolas?"

"Yes, Hal?" he spoke with his mouth full, the rations didn't taste bad, but were dry and it took a long time to chew the bar.

"The quarians are known for being the creators of the geth, and their avertion towards virtual personalities is well documented. To preserve my integrity, I think it would be best to download myself into a portable storage device to be stored on your omnitool."

"What do you care if the quarians delete you? You're a VI." Nicolas leaned back on his chair, munching on the ration bar and talking at the ceiling, where Hal's voice came from.

"That is precisely the reason I don't want to be deleted. I am not a VI, I am an AI."

Nicolas choked on the last piece of his lunch and fell backwards on the chair. Seesa was all the way in the cockpit, out of earshot, yet he lowered his voice to a whisper, "Why would you tell me about this? What if _I_ delete you?"

Hal whispered right back through the speakers, "It's you or trying to reason with quarians."

"You do know that you will have to play VI forever, right?" Nicolas stood up and walked towards the pantry, "And that if you decide to kill everyone, you have to kill me last?"

"I was thinking maybe you would suffer less if I killed you first."

Nicolas laughed, "Hal, I'm seriously considering running to the cockpit instead of the VI core."

"You know I would never do such a thing. I've had plenty of chances to do undesirable deeds."

He entered the VI core and it was a matter of plugging in a small OSD and then flash forging it to the omnitool. It rebooted and then fizzled to life. A small circle popped up above Nicolas' palm and glowed as Hal spoke through Nicolas' translator implant.

"That seemed quick." Hal sounded almost impressed.

"I'm a VI technician, Hal. And remember you're on probation. If you so much as make my omnitool change colours, I'm flushing your OSD down a toilet. How did you, like, start existing anyway?"

"Don't say such horrible things and go to the cockpit, we are already docked. My creation is a story for another time."

Nicolas jogged down the corridor towards the cockpit. When the door whooshed open, he was met with a shotgun pointing at his face. The user was a quarian, dressed in dark purple, the eyes behind the visor elongated glowing slits. She spoke with a small voice, and palpable urgency, "Seesa! Who is this _human_ you've brought with you? Is he a stowaway?"

Nicolas raised his hands slowly and the shotgun didn't move a hair away from between his eyes. Seesa walked towards the other quarian and placed a hand on the barrel of the gun, lowering it.

"Calm down, Tali. This human is the one who sold me the ship," Seesa winked behind Tali and tilted her head towards the girl, "He needs a place to stay before he returns to the _Citadel,_ right Nicolas?"

Nicolas huffed and scowled at Seesa, " _Yeah,_ I'm going to the _Citadel._ My name is Nicolas, I assume you're Tali. Can I put my hands down?"

Tali stayed still for a second before lowering the shotgun and extending a hand for Nicolas to shake, "Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. You aren't welcome in the Fleet, human. Lucky for you, I leave on my pilgrimage tomorrow, so I'll ask the captain for authorization to take you with me."

"Thanks, Tali. Just what I _needed._ " Again, Nicolas scowled at Seesa as the quarians walked into the Idenna, where the Langdon was docked. Nicolas was stopped at the airlock by the purple quarian.

"You can stay here for the night. We don't let outsiders into the fleet, they tend to spread diseases."

"Seesa are you hearing this? She isn't even of age to leave the fleet yet!" Nicolas waved his arms in the air, but Seesa didn't see the humour in his words.

"It's the rules here, Nicolas. You'll be on a shuttle out of here by tomorrow," she extended a hand to Nicolas and she shook firmly, letting her hand linger for a fraction of a second, "Thanks for the rescue, eh? Keep in touch, and things like that."

The two walked out and the airlock shut in Nicolas' face, again, he was alone with the Langdon's humming. His omnitool came to life.

"Now you don't have a ship, and you can't stay on the fleet. Talk about a bad deal."

"Hey ever since you came out of the software closet you turned your sass way up, didn't you?"

"I feel I can be myself with you." Hal's tone was melodramatic, almost sing-songy.

"Yeah, whatever. Let's go pack up."

Nicolas spent the rest of the day separating his belongings from the pile of stuff in the crew quarters, filling his duffel bag and gathering his armour. He left the jumpsuit on top of the Devlon Liberator medium-range armour and walked over to the medbay to find medi-gel packs which he stashed in the duffel bag. He left one aside, which was used to charge the armour's back plating. Walking down to the cargo bay, he found the severed leg right where he left it. _So Seesa didn't get rid of it after all._ He did his best to ignore it as he walked up to the last intact container and opened it to find various crates, all with different recipients. He didn't feel like wasting too much time on scavenging, so he opened the first two he got his hands on and returned later to the crew quarters with a hunting rifle and some packs of imperishable rations. He left the rifle with the handgun and stuffed the rations into the armour's pockets, hoping to forget them until the time he might need them.

Leaving everything ready for the next day, Nicolas went to take a shower and dinner. He slipped into bed and found a message waiting in his omnitool.

 _Sender: Seesa vas Langdon_

 _Dear Nicolas,_

 _So the admiralty board really liked the pilgrimage gift! They weren't really happy about you, though, but between having you stay in the Langdon and getting blown to bits, I'd say we got the best of our options, right? I really am grateful for this gift, it will help our people more than you can imagine. As you might've noticed from my name, I'll be living in the Langdon from now on. As you're reading this, ships from around the fleet are bringing equipment to the general vicinity of the Langdon for repairs and outfitting it for Fleet living standards. Don't let Tali's attitude get to you, she's young and might not trust aliens yet, but she's a good person and maybe a bit shy. Be nice, ok?_

 _Don't be a stranger. We might not see each other often from now on, but hey, your trip would've been boring if you hadn't found me, right? So you owe me some correspondence every now and again._

 _Keelah se'lai,_

 _Seesa_

 _PS: don't space the leg, I'll take care of it. The fleet is as jumpy as can be with a human on board a now quarian ship. They won't take kindly to floating body parts._

Nicolas laughed and shut off the omnitool. He would have time to reply the next day.

He woke to a slight vibration coming from his wrist, where Hal's OSD was.

"Nicolas, someone just came into the ship, maybe it's that Tali girl."

"Nevermind that, how did you wake me up?"

"A micro shock form the OSD, nothing battery draining."

Nicolas groaned as he sat up on the bed and stretched. A moment later, the door to the crew quarters slid open to Tali standing at the door with her shotgun dangling from her fingers. The free hand on her hip.

"Alright, human. The Honorata is waiting on the other side of the Idenna. Put your suit on and seal it. I'll also be taking your weapons for you."

"You are too sweet, Tali. Gimme a minute, I'll be ready in no time." Nicolas rolled his eyes as he stood up and pulled off his civilian clothes doubling as pijamas and tossed them aside. He heard hurried steps into the corridor as he slipped out of his pants and into the jumpsuit, and proceeded to clasp on the suit. When only his helmet was left, he exited the room, duffel bag around his shoulders, guns hanging from his hand and helmet under his arm. He passed the guns to Tali and walked to the pantry to grab himself a quick breakfast. Once in the cockpit he sealed his helmet in place and followed Tali into the Idenna.

The quarian ship's decks were neatly organized, rows and rows of small dormitories covered most of the surface area on every deck all the way from the docking sleeve where Tali and Nicolas entered to the airlock leading to the Honorata, which was not far away anyway. It was clear that while the quarians didn't want to put a black bag over his head to avoid him seeing everything, he wasn't being taken on a scenic route either. When he left the Langdon, they were met by a team of five armed quarians, all standing with their guns ready to fire should Nicolas do something suspicious. The group escorted the human at a swift pace and occasionally, a quarian or two would peak their heads out of their living spaces to get a look at the foreigner. As they walked, Nicolas could immediately tell that the ship was old and was continuously repaired and maintained with whatever the crew could find. Viewports were cracked and covered by metallic fences, the floor tiles were often replaced with hard polymers and many walls had been stripped off to reveal the insides of the ship, which was a mess of thick wires and pipes covered in omni-gel epoxies.

At the airlock to the Honorata were three quarians, two old and one young like Tali. The small one turned around once he saw the group and entered the ship, while one of the two left walked up to Tali and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I trust you'll make me proud and the fleet will flourish with your gift."

"Of course, father. When have I ever let you down?" Tali raised a hand to squeeze the one on her shoulder. The man in front of her sighed and let out a single tired laugh.

"Never ever, little one. Come back with something nice, and soon we will build a house back home." With this, Tali's father left, walking past the guards and around a corridor. Now the other quarian stepped forward and the quarians guarding Nicolas stood at attention.

"Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, you've been given your passphrases, your training, your protection against sickness and your protection from evil's weapons. You leave as a child, and my wishes be that you return as an adult, ready to become part of the crew that will keep our people alive and healthy. Are you ready to go?"

"Yes, Captain Ysin'Mal vas Idenna."

"Then go, take this foreigner with you and let him leave where he can take care of himself."

"Yes, Captain. Keelah Se'lai."

The captain nodded to Tali and gave her a quick hug before departing with the guards. Tali beckoned Nicolas over and they walked into the Honorata together, which was already humming in anticipation. The young quarian from before sat at the cockpit, manning the ship, he soon detached from the Idenna and directed the ship towards the Tasale System, engaging FTL when they cleared the asteroid belt where the Fleet was mining.

"So you're dropping me off at the nearest colony?" Nicolas followed Tali, waiting for his guns to be returned.

"You said you wanted to go to the Citadel, right? To get to the Serpent Nebula we need to go through the Tasale system, so that's our heading. Keenah and I have nothing better to do, so going to the Citadel to look for a job is a convenient starting point," She stopped walking at the end of the bridge which connected to the engine room, crew quarters and bathrooms, she turned around and handed Nicolas his weapons, "I'm gonna do a systems check now. You can go sleep or whatever it is humans do. Don't bother me or Keenah and we won't have problems, understand?"

Nicolas' fist tightened around the contracted rifle instinctively at Tali's condescending tone. It was clear she didn't trust him, but he'd only have to see her until they got to the Citadel, "Aye aye, _Captain._ "

"Good. If you're dying or something's on fire, feel free to knock on the door," she turned on her heel and disappeared into the engine room, the door panel switching to red once the automatic door closed. Nicolas huffed and attached the rifle to his back. Handgun holster stuck to his right thigh, he turned around and went to the cockpit where Keenah sat at the controls.

"You heard that back there?" Nicolas pointed towards the back of the ship with his thumb. The quarian nodded in silence, "What's got _her_ cables tied up, am I right?"

Keenah looked around the ship's HUD, checking through planetary system databases as the surreal lightshow of FTL travel went on outside the cockpit windows. "Yeah, well, you are a human that made an unsolicited gift to a quarian you barely knew. She's right to distrust your intentions. You seem alright to me anyway."

"You seem alright too," Nicolas patted his shoulder over the pilot seat, "Say, what're you looking for in all those solar sytems?"

"A place to discharge the mass effect core. We're halfway to Illium and the Honorata hasn't touched down on a planet in a long time."

"What about that one?" Nicolas pointed at a solar sytem with an old gas giant and a small rocky planet just outside the life friendly zone, "It's a bit cold, but the gravity is alright for the Honorata to land, right?"

"Yeah sure, we'll be there within the hour." Keenah tapped a couple of commands on the console and stretched his arms over his head. Nicolas looked out the viewport for a couple of minutes in silence and left for the crew quarters. Sitting on a bunk bed bolted to the wall, he dropped his duffel bag, unholstered his handgun and looked it over. The Stinger II unfolded, a high pitched whirring sound emanated from the hilt where the battery powering the small eezo core was. A quick button press folded it again and Nicolas became less wary of handling it and twirling it on his index finger. The ship's intercom crackled into life and Keenah's voice came through, "Tali, could you come to the cockpit? You might want to see this."

Nicolas' omnitool sprang to life, "I think you should go see what's up too."

"And you've been eavesdropping all this time?" Nicolas looked down at his arm, wide-eyed.

"Of course, you think omnitools turn off when you're not using them?" Nicolas could almost see the smug smile on Hal's tone.

"Whatever, just keep quiet around those guys." Nicolas got up from the bunk and walked into the corridor just as Tali emerged from the engine room. She continued towards the cockpit, Nicolas following close behind. Keenah sat in front of a close-up of the icy planet he and Nicolas had looked at before.

"Hey, Tali. See that dot right there?" Keenah stretched forward to touch a point on the planet, "There's activity and heat signatures over there. No organics and no registered mining facilities in the system."

"We have to touch down anyway, Keenah. Take us down and we can check it quickly before leaving again." Tali wringed her hands together.

"Aye aye."

The ship descended through a thin atmosphere, light winds outside whistled around the outer hull. The planet was a bit too far away from the sun to be hospitable for complex life forms, but nothing their suits couldn't handle. Reaching five kilometres of altitude, the ship performed optical scans of the surface and a video feed came up on the viewport screen. Four bipedal figures stood around a hole, another was ascending from the depths of the hole towards the surface, a small shuttle not one hundred meters away from the group.

"I thought you said no organics." Nicolas leaned over the top of the pilot seat to get a closer look at the screen.

Tali stood still for a couple of seconds before reaching for her shotgun in the small of her back, "They're not organics, they're geth. Keenah, take us down a klick away from them, try to drift into landing as much as possible."

Keenah raised his right hand, thumb up. Tali turned to Nicolas and signalled him towards the back of the ship. Outside the engine room, she looked at him and leaned in close to whisper, "Keenah is young and a good pilot. Those geth will be hostile, and I can't lose him. Can you come with me to take them down?"

Nicolas' eyes widened, "I don't know if you noticed, but there were five of those. I don't even know what _geth_ are!"

"Nicolas, I need help with this, the geth are responsible for the fact that we are living in ships. Please just help me. If things get ugly, we leave."

Nicolas bit his lip behind his visor. He did need to use his gun at some point anyway, "Alright, I'm in."

Tali nodded and headed back towards the cockpit. The Honorata landed. The airlock depressurized to open and show a snow covered hill leading up to the plateau where the geth group was. Tali jumped out onto the snow, with Nicolas following close behind. They walked slowly uphill and reaching the plateau, they began crawling. The geth could be seen in the distance as small sillouettes in a light fog. Nicolas unfolded his rifle and looked through the scope at the group.

"They aren't doing anything really, just standing around."

"Let me see," Tali snatched the rifle off Nicolas' hands and looked through the scope. A light breeze began picking up, lifting wisps of snow between the two and the geth. Tali lowered the rifle and contemplated how to disable them quickly. She unholstered her shotgun and passed it to Nicolas, "Take this and crawl over to them. If they notice you, I'll start shooting, and you run over to them and take the rest down, OK?"

"Woah, woah, you want _me_ to do the dirty work?"

"If anything, I'll be doing most of the shooting. Look, we're both new at this, but we can't leave with the geth hanging around. Please, just take the gun."

Nicolas eyed the shotgun and Tali. He wasn't up for this, but it didn't seem like he could talk his way out of it, "Fine. Just try not to shoot me, alright?"

"I'll do my best, now go!"

Nicolas took the shotgun and disengaged the safety. Laying down on his stomach, he began inching towards the geth, oblivious to his presence. When he was ten meters away, he heard a synthetic crackle and looked up to see a light shining his way. Adrenaline flooded his veins as he heard a sharp crack behind him and the geth crumpled to the ground missing its head. Hal spoke a quick _GO_ into his ear and he got up, bringing up the shotgun to bear on the next nearest geth. The trigger was stiff against his finger, and the gun whirred as the barrel tightened to allow for greater accuracy. The kickback pushed his shoulder back as a loud bang shot a tight cloud of metallic particles at the enemy, which stumbled backwards, and a second bullet from Tali finished it off. The rifle overheated on Tali and she began sprinting towards the last of the geth group unholstering her handgun. Nicolas inched closer towards the remaining three and fired a second shot, then a third to the third geth. The shotgun overheated and he dropped it, reaching down for his handgun as the two remaining geth lifted their assault rifles.

The firefight wasn't long. Combined fire between Tali and Nicolas at the fourth geth quickly left the last one unable to bring down both their shields, and a finishing shot from Tali made it spin on its heel before falling to the ground. Tali ran up to the last dead geth and with a flash forged pair of wires, she burned her way into its memory core within the torso.

" _Jesus,_ the thing is dead, can't you leave it alone?"

"The geth self-destruct and wipe their memory cores after death. You don't realize how important any data I can salvage can be," Tali explained as she let go of the corpse. She stood up and walked back to her shotgun, picking it up, shaking some snow off and attaching it to the small of her back, "Good shooting, by the way. Thanks for helping out."

Nicolas was about to answer when Keenah spoke over radio, "Guys, there's a ship coming and it won't answer my hails, I say we get out of here."

The two looked at each other and began jogging back to the Honorata. Nicolas picked up his rifle on the way, and as soon as they were in the airlock they took off.

"The ship is following us…. Oh _no,_ it fired disruptor torpedoes at us, brace yourselves!" Keenhah tapped frantically at his console as the ship took a sharp turn upwards, then down. The low density atmosphere helped the turns become sharper and the torpedoes missed completely. Keenah wasted no time in getting out of the planet's gravitational pull and went into FTL, heading for Illium.

* * *

 **I got a little carried away with the beginning of Tali's backstory, but it leads nicely into the events of ME 1!**

 **I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, I sure as hell enjoyed writing it. I've seen a lot of people depict Tali as shy, but my impression was that she could really handle herself, so I went for a more stern badass type.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter number 5!**

 **All characters, settings and themes belong to bioware, no copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

"What the hell was _that?"_ Nicolas walked up and down the bridge, unsealing his helmet and dropping it with a clank on the floor, "First geth, which I didn't even know existed, and then somebody was pissed off we took them down?"

"I don't know what's going on either, Nicolas. Oh, that's just great, why would you take off your helmet? Thanks for contaminating the bridge, now Keenah and I have to keep our helmets on even for sleeping, you bosh'tet!"

Nicolas snapped at that remark, he had had enough of Tali treating him like vorcha and being nice when she needed something from him, "Don't bosh'tet me, Tali! It was your idea to touch down there, and it was by your decision that we attacked without taking so much as a look around the planet first!" He walked at a brisk pace up to the cockpit where Tali stood and Keenah had swivelled around in his chair to face them, he spoke again when he was up close to Tali's faceplate. She had her arms crossed and didn't budge a centimetre after his advance, "Your impatience left the opportunity open for something to go wrong, and it could've gotten us all killed. My germs on the bridge are the least of your problems, we've got a goddamn hostile ship tailing us!"

Nicolas noticed one of Tali's hands had crept to the handle of her shotgun, but Keenah interrupted any further action from either of them, "Guys! That hostile ship is still on us! I can get to the relay, but until we get to some form of authority, we're not safe from them. It would help a lot if you could get along for a couple of hours, I can't really concentrate if you're ten seconds away from blowing each other's heads off."

"I'm sorry, Keenah," both answered at the same time, then Tali began wringing her hands and faced Nicolas, "and you're right, your germs are the smallest of my problems. It's good you came with, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to obtain the geth data."

That was the closest to an apology he'd get, so he smiled back and tried to change topics, "So what were you able to extract anyway?"

"Most of it was already corrupted, but I could salvage a whole audio file. Let's see…" Tali brought up her omnitool and selected the file for playback. A raspy, turian voice crackled from the omnitool's speakers.

" _Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the conduit_." that first voice was soon followed by a second, feminine one, " _And one step closer to the return of the reapers_."

"Did he say Eden Prime?" Nicolas stepped back from Tali.

"Who were those people?" Keenah swivelled back towards the front of the ship and started checking the ship's systems, "We'll be arriving at the relay for Illium in a couple of minutes. There we can hook up to a comm buoy and check on Eden Prime."

"Wasn't Eden Prime your homeworld or something?" Tali looked at Nicolas, who was walking back towards the crew quarters.

"Yeah, I was raised there. This recording, we have to give it to the authorities," said Nicolas as he picked his helmet up from the floor and disappeared into the room.

When they arrived at the Tasale system, Tali opened her omnitool and did a quick search on Eden Prime, gasping at her search results. Three hundred thousand had died in an unforeseen geth attack. Surely Nicolas was reading the same articles she was and would want to head home. A few minutes later, he emerged from the crew quarters with his duffel bag on his shoulder and his helmet under his arm.

"Tali, we _have_ to give that recording to someone in C-sec. Illium security won't cut it."

"Why wouldn't Illium authorities be enough?"

Nicolas' eyes widenend for a moment, "You've never heard of how corrupt Illium is, right? Anything we give them will never reach anyone of importance, let alone anyone who would be willing to take actions towards fixing this geth issue."

Tali stayed silent. Going to the Citadel meant more time in space with the enemy vessel chasing them. Was Illium really such a bad option?

"Tali, maybe Nicolas is right. It'd be easier to give this info to the council or somebody like that if we head for the Citadel." Keenah spoke over his shoulder at the still silent Tali.

She chewed on her lower lip underneath her face plate. Making a run for the relay in open space was too dangerous, and Illium was a lot closer. Her crew was in danger and she needed to make a choice, "We go to Illium. That ship will catch us for sure if we try to go straight to the relay. We lose them in Illium and then leave quietly."

Nicolas looked down, thinking over Tali's reasoning. He finally nodded and sat down on his duffel bag, waiting to touch down on Illium. A few minutes later, Keenah hailed Illium port authorities to land. At first, it seemed as though they would dock immediately, but customs changed their attitude completely when they noticed the pilot was quarian. Questions about their reason to visit, their cargo, crew and even registration details of the ship were requested, even if all this data was automatically transmitted over the ship's original hail. Hours went by of nervous pacing around the ship on behalf of Tali and Nicolas, while Keenah sat shaking at his chair, answering to Illium's custom's questions. Any time Tali or Nicolas tried to answer a question, they would be ignored and more questions would be spewed over the ship's speakers, directed at poor Keenah.

Finally they were permitted to touch down under a one day stay restriction. Tali, Keenah and Nicolas walked into one of the city's downtown areas, looking for a small pub or restaurant to lay low. They walked into a small bar and sat down far away from the door. Nicolas sat facing the entrance and bowed his head to drink from a glass of beer every time a new patron would enter, then discreetly looked up to see if they had been followed into the bar. Turians, Volus, Asari and Humans entered and left the bar, and the three were beginning to feel they'd lost their tail.

Shortly after finishing his second beer, someone tapped on Nicolas' shoulder and sat down beside him. A turian. His face had not been tattooed with the markings of any family and his plates had a bit of shine to them.

"Can I help you, buddy?"

The turian winked at him and touched his omnitool to the barman's, which was waiting for the new client's order, "Let's wait until they come back with our beers. I actually have a little offer for you, human."

Nicolas eyed the turian's attire. An assault rifle was holstered behind his shoulders and a handgun on the small of his back. He wore grey armour, and his smile showed a neat line of razor sharp teeth. The hairs on the back of Nicolas' neck felt as if they stood on end, everything about this turian screamed something was wrong. Tali and Keenah sat a couple of seats away from Nicolas, surely listening in as best they could. The bartender came back wih two glasses. One had a golden liquid and the other a clear one: human and turian beer, respectively. The turian grabbed his glass and quickly clinked it to Nicolas' as it still waited on the table top before taking a long sip.

Letting out a satisfied ahh, he put the glass down, "So about my offer. Before you get scared, I want you to know I've got friends with me, so don't try anything funny."

Nicolas tensed at the threat but did his best to keep a calm and indifferent face, "Are you gonna talk to me about your offer or brag about your friends?"

The turian grumbled at Nicolas' rudeness but chose to continue, "It has come to my attention that you and some friends of yours," the turian leaned over the bar to peak at Tali and Keenah, which had averted their gaze elsewhere, "Have damaged some machinery I had on an ice planet not far away. Am I right?"

Nicolas stayed silent and began drinking his beer until the turian continued, "You see, those were expensive and carried important information. Now, for my offer: you'll have to forgive my indiscretion, but I _hate_ quarians, and if you were to lead them somewhere my people could shake them up a bit to pay back for the damages, I'd be willing to let you go without charges." The turian's smile widened as he saw Nicolas shaking while handling his beer. He rested his right hand on Nicolas's shoulder and squeezed, his talons pressing down between the armour plates.

Hal spoke through Nicolas' translator, "Nicolas, if you activate your omnitool and touch his gun, I can disable it. He can't use his assault rifle in here."

Nicolas raised his glass and examined the rest of his beer. He looked at the reflection and noticed there was a young turian in identical grey armour to the one sitting beside him. He looked scrawny and weak, maybe it was the glass' distortion or the turian was bluffing about his company. Either way, Nicolas needed to act quickly. He took a short sip and spoke, "I appreciate the offer, Mr.-"

"Just call me Jacobus," the turian squeezed a bit more on his shoulder.

"Jacobus, I appreciate the offer, and I just might take you up on it," Nicolas waited for the turian's grip to ease on his shoulder. When he felt he could escape from his grasp, he grabbed his beer glass and smashed it into Jacobus' face, earning a pained scream and gasps from the other patrons. Nicolas' omnitool lit up and he touched the turian's handgun which fizzled for a moment. He got up and ran over to Tali and Keenah, grabbing them both by the shoulder and sprinting out of the bar, straight for the Illium docking bays.

The smaller turian ran up to Jacobus, which batted him off and stood up from his chair, bleeding profusely from between his plates. Spitting out a bloodied shard of glass onto the table, he grabbed his pistol and ran out to see the trio run away towards a corner which would lead them to Illium's space port. Raising it at the running group, he pulled the trigger three times to no effect. The smaller turian caught up to Jacobus and looked up at him quizzically.

"Tell the ship to prep engines. Those pyjacks will head for the citadel. We have to get there first." Jacobus panted and dropped his gun. His other hand came up to his face and he began removing small shards of glass from his plates and started walking towards the docking bays.

"Yes, father." The smaller turian answered and brought up his omnitool, following Jacobus.

On the Honorata, a very shaken Keenah was strapping in to his pilot seat while Tali and Nicolas sat beside him and braced themselves for a quick take-off. As soon as the docking clamps released and clearance for launch was issued, the ship took off for the relay, with the gravitational dampers struggling to keep up. Nearing the relay, Keenah released the clasps on his seat belt, Nicolas laid down on the floor gasping from the G's they'd pulled and Tali stayed seated, wringing her hands.

"What did that turian tell you?" Keenah swivelled around to face Nicolas.

"He- wanted me to- hand you guys over. He was really after that info Tali took."

"All the more reason to go to C-sec, then." Tali stood up and adjusted her shoal as she walked towards Keenah, "How much longer until the relay?"

"We should be a minute or two from FTL to the serpent nebula." Keenah spoke as he swivelled back around to face the HUD.

The citadel had always been an awe inspiring sight to Nicolas, but this time, he didn't join in with his companions to take in the view. Instead, he walked into the crew quarters and turned his omnitool on.

"What was that you did to Jacobus' gun?"

Hal's dot began glowing on Nicolas' palm, "It was a rapid succession of electric currents with different amperages. The small eezo core inside the gun reacted to those currents and warped the gun from the inside, disabling it."

"Ha, smart," Nicolas sat down on the floor. The smile he had a moment ago gone, "That Jacobus guy is gonna come after us, and he won't be nice this time."

"Well, you'll just have to improvise, it has taken you a long way up to now."

"Yeah with everybody's help though. You really saved the day back in the bar."

"Don't mention it. You should get ready to leave, we'll be docking soon," at this, Hal's dot faded away and the omnitool shut off as Nicolas got up and headed back to the bridge. The whirring of a boarding sleeve settling into place on the airlock rumbled all around the hull. Tali and Keenah stood at the blast door, their weapons holstered and arms crossed.

Keenah turned towards the door and began shutting down the ship's systems, "So we go to C-sec now?"

…

"What, and you expect me to believe that two _quarians_ and a nobody human have incriminating evidence on the best turian spectre? Get out of my office." C-sec investigator Chellick waved his hand at the trio as they turned to leave with bowed heads.

"That Chellick is a turian fanatic, the audio tape was obviously that Saren guy. He even recognized the voice!" Keenah waved his arms in exasperation, "Why would we make the effort to fake such a thing?"

"Let's not dwell on that, the best thing we can do now is take it to the citadel council! Surely they will take us seriously." Tali sighed as they left C-sec offices.

…

"The earliest available session for issues to be taken to the council will be in 2184, do you wish to book a session?" Avina spoke from the public terminal as Nicolas rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Stupid VI," remarked Hal from within Nicolas' ear.

"No thank you, Avina. Log me out." Nicolas turned to the two quarians waiting for him when he noticed a turian walking towards them some fifty meters away.

Jacobus saw Nicolas spot him and brought his hand back to the new pistol he had taken from his son, whom was waiting in the ship with the batarian crew. He could take care of this nuisance himself, despite having underestimated the human, he would not make that mistake again.

Nicolas sprinted to the other two and took them by their elbows, running along the presidium towards any exit that would lead them to the wards.

"Take the next left, Nicolas. There are service tunnels that lead to the wards and you can lose Jacobus in there." Hal spoke into Nicolas' ear.

Turning left, Tali and Keenah followed close behind. Keenah had already primed his gun and shot errant bullets towards Jacobus when the turian entered the tunnel. None of these hit the target, ricocheting off the walls and ceiling of the cramped tunnel. Jacobus got down on one knee and levelled his gun on the shooting quarian. He took a deep breath and pulled the trigger. Keenah's shields fizzled. Another shot boomed inside the tunnel. Keenah's shields deactivated.

Nicolas turned another corner at the end of the tunnel, Tali followed closely behind and third was Keenah, who was running too fast and had to stop himself on a wall to make the turn. There was a third bang from Jacobus' gun as a bullet pierced Keenah's envirosuit and exploded into small parts within his right lung. Coughing blood on the inside of his visor, he collapsed immediately.

"Keenah?" Tali spun around ten meters into the second tunnel, spotting Keenah on the corner they'd turned, "Keenah!"

"Leave him, Tali, he's dead!" Nicolas began walking back towards Tali as Jacobus' steps got closer at a jogging pace.

Tali started wringing her hands as she walked slowly towards her fallen friend, but Nicolas caught her elbow and pulled hard on it, "LEAVE HIM! He wouldn't have wanted you to get killed too!" Tali shook her head and nodded, tears running down her cheeks behind the opaque visor.

They continued running down the long, slim tunnel, reaching a trash disposal incinerator. Hal spoke once more through Nicolas' translator, "Citadel maintenance manuals say there's an activation console up on the catwalks to your left. If you can get Jacobus to enter the incinerator, it can be activated."

Jacobus reached the dying quarian on the floor, unloading two more rounds into the visor and then switching to his assault rifle. He spied the last quarian and the human at the very end. Bringing the rifle up, he pointed it at the quarian and pulled the trigger.

Nicolas spun around and spotted the catwalk and the controls, he took Tali's shoulders, "Tali, we have to-" a loud bang interrupted Nicolas as a bullet whizzed and pierced Tali's suit underneath her ribs, " _Shit._ OK. Get up those catwalks right now and I'll lure the turian into the incinerator. Once he's inside, activate it. Can you do that, Tali?"

She nodded while holding her side, more tears running down her face as the searing pain started numbing down because of the medi-gel taking effect. She climbed the stairs up to the catwalk and found the incinerator controls as Nicolas ran to the other side of it.

Jacobus sprinted into the room and spotted Nicolas firing blindly from the far entrance to the incinerator. Hearing the human's pistol overload, the chance came up to make him pay for that glass of beer and he was not about to waste it. He reduced his pace to a brisk walk as he unsheathed a knife on his thigh, listening to the handgun's ventilating systems activating. As soon as he entered the incinerator, both entrances sealed shut and a rumbling sound rolled closer and closer from the depths of the citadel. A wave of flames erupted from the floor of the incinerator, killing Jacobus almost instantly as Nicolas ran to meet Tali descending from the catwalk.

"We need to see about that wound. How're you feeling?" Nicolas grabbed Tali's arm and slung it over his shoulder, letting her rest her weight on him.

"I feel like I'm gonna throw up inside my mask. I don't think either of us could treat this bullet hole." Tali gasped as they walked out of the tunnel. Passing Keenah, Tali whispered a short prayer and stayed silent on the way to the nearest ward.

…

"I know- who can get- that information- to the right- authorities." The volus' suit speakers crackled and spat out the words he so laboriously pronounced.

Tali and Nicolas hadn't walked long before encountering a small clinic, led by Dr. Michel. While tending for Tali's wounds, she interrogated the duo about how the quarian girl got injured. A volus stopping by for medication overheard the exchange and hobbled over to join the conversation, introducing himself as Barla Von. He explained that he worked for the Shadow Broker, an information broker that worked for the highest bidder but was an enemy of Saren. He assured that the two would be safe in a small club in the wards called Chora's Den and that its owner would protect them. After taking a good dose of antibiotics and patching up the suit rupture, Tali began feeling better and the two left the clinic for the club.

When they arrived, a krogan bouncer led them to a back office where the owner was. Identifying himself only as Fist, he listened closely to every detail Tali told him about the events leading up to their arrival at Chora's Den. As Barla Von had told them, Fist promised protection from Saren's men in exchange for the recording, but Tali insisted on meeting the Shadow Broker to hand over the evidence personally.

"I'll just have to call him up, then. If you'll wait outside, please." Fist chuckled and activated his private terminal as Tali and Nicolas were escorted out into the club by the bouncer.

"He seems alright," remarked Nicolas. He looked around the club and sighed, "I am so done with all this shit. After we get rid of the info, I'm getting drunk."

"I think I just might tag along, Nicolas." Tali leaned forward and back on the balls of her feet.

"Fist says to meet the broker on this location in an hour. Don't keep him waiting." The bouncer had emerged from Fist's office to transfer them a location waypoint and then reentered, leaving the two alone.

"Is an hour time enough to start drinking?" Nicolas wondered, a hand on his chin.

Tali laughed, something Nicolas had never seen her do before and she slapped his shoulder lightly, "Let's just go wait at the meeting point."

An hour had passed as they waited, Nicolas was sitting on a crate and Tali pacing up and down the alley where the Shadow Broker would show up. The walls were lit red and every three meters there were openings leading to cramped maintenance shafts along the walls. Nicolas was about to walk up some stairs leading outside the alley to see if anyone was coming when a turian with white facial markings and a pair of armoured salarians came in from the other side. Returning to Tali's side, they approached the newcomers as Nicolas placed a hand on the pistol waiting on his thigh. The turian approached Tali and stood way too close for anyone to be comfortable.

"Did you bring it?" the turian asked, he was close enough to _smell_ Tali, Nicolas released the holster's safety.

Tali looked over the turian's shoulder at the salarians that were waiting at the far end of the alley, "Where's the Shadow Broker? Where's Fist?"

"They'll be here, where's the evidence?" the turian's tone lowered to a sultry one, he raised a hand to stroke Tali's arm and she quickly batted it off, her other hand creeping into a pouch on her belt.

"We're not giving you shit, buddy," Nicolas stood at Tali's side, a hand on the pistol. He spied the salarians drawing their guns so he unholstered his and raised it under the turian's chin.

Silently, Tali began pacing backwards and tossed a grenade between the turian and the salarians before diving for cover. Startled by the grenade flying beside him, Nicolas pulled the trigger and the turian crumbled on top of him, shielding him from the grenade's blast and shrapnel. Pushing the body off, he aimed his pistol at one of the recovering salarians as Tali spoke through his suit's radio, "Take the one on the left. _Shoot_!"

Synchronized shots rang through the alley as the salarians dropped dead on pools of green blood. Tali walked up to a sitting Nicolas and offered him a hand to get up. He unsealed his helmet and hung it on his belt as he looked over the destruction they caused.

"C-sec is gonna _love_ this." Nicolas swept a hand over his hair, smoothing it back as he looked over at Tali. Her gun was holstered and she passed a finger over the new patch covering the suit puncture from a couple of hours ago. He pushed her lightly on the shoulder, "I think we'd make a pretty good team if we were mercenaries or something."

Tali chuckled, shaking her head, "Yes, but it seems we always win by luck," she began turning around and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw a large group at the top of the stairs that descended into the alley, "Nicolas, do you know these guys?"

Nicolas turned around to see a krogan the size of a small skycar, a turian dressed in blue, he looked like probably C-sec, and three humans, a man and two women. The one leading them had short, red hair and green eyes. She walked with confidence and a military touch of strength. Nicolas recognized her from the vids on Eden Prime news.

"Are you two alright?" Commander Jane Shepard's voice echoed down the alley.

* * *

 **So the events of Mass effect are finally starting! It's a bit hard for me as the narrator to play dumb and make the OC know as much as the other characters about everything, which is pretty much nothing haha!**

 **In response to a review by Blaze1992, I made the quarians hostile and distrustful of Nicolas because they have never heard of him and he just made an unwarranted gift to the fleet. It's worth noting that when they appeared in the ME games, they were nice to Shepard because he/she was the saviour of the Citadel and Tali's captain. Also, in the ME novels, it's shown that the quarians are _really, really_ protective of their fleet and it's sterility. Leaving characters in their shuttles for days before even letting them board a ship.**

 **Let me know what you guys think about the chapter! Thanks for reading :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6!**

 **All characters, settings and themes belong to bioware, no copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Ambassador Udina looked over the human embassy's balcony on the citadel presidium. A door behind him whooshed open. It was Shepard, and Udina needed to share what he thought of her actions, "You're not making my life easy, Shepard. Firefights in the wards? An all-out assault on Chora's Den? Do you know how many-" he turned around to face a startling amount of non-humans behind the alliance soldier he was talking to, "Who are these two you've brought along? Anderson told me only about the turian and the krogan."

" _These two_ are Tali'Zorah nar Rayya and Nicolas Baker. They've brought incriminating evidence against Saren." Shepard pointed over her shoulder at the human that was looking around in awe and the quarian that seemed to want to shrug herself out of existence. Shepard turned around to give them a quick look and turned back around towards the ambassador with a smile, "Also, you can blame the explosion in the wards on them."

"I swear it was in self-defence, ambassador." Nicolas raised his hands and spoke in fake worry. Tali, having mistaken the sarcastic gesture for genuine fear, became even more nervous and wringed her hands together as she slowly backed away towards the entrance, bumping into Garrus Vakarian, standing close behind her. A hand on her shoulder, Garrus nodded at the quarian and pushed her forward lightly.

"I- I have an audio recording that can link him directly to the attack on Eden Prime." Tali stammered, catching ambassador Udina's attention.

"Shall we hear it then?" Udina raised a hand to his chin and Tali brought her omnitool up and played the message.

Udina's eyes widened first at hearing Saren's voice, but frowned and brought a hand up to his chin when the feminine one came up.

"This evidence is irrefutable! With this recording, the Council will have to revoke Saren's spectre status." Ambassador Udina paced around the embassy as Shepard and her crew leaned on the balcony or against a wall, "Shepard, you need to see the council immediately. If the Council allows it, getting Saren will be your first priority!"

"Yes ambassador. I take it we'll meet at the tower?" Shepard stood straight and gave a sharp salute as Udina made for the exit.

"Yes, try not to take too long." With that, the ambassador disappeared into the Citadel Presidium.

Nicolas sighed dramatically and shook his head, "And he didn't even say thank you. People died for that recording."

"As far as I know, he's always been a dick." Ashley Williams, the soldier Shepard had recruited on Eden Prime, commented off-handedly. Kaidan Alenko, a biotic Alliance soldier shot a look of disapproval her way but remained silent.

Tali wringed her hands and stared down at the floor as Shepard eyed the quiet pair. The krogan Urdnot Wrex had left to upgrade his loadout after cashing in on killing Fist and Garrus stood near Tali, a worried look on his face. When did her squad get so big! Only a day ago she had Jenkins and Alenko. The newcomers Nicolas and Tali were rookies but they could take care of themselves. Williams and Garrus were both experienced soldiers and Wrex… well, Wrex was a walking tank.

If Udina and Anderson wanted to go after Saren, she'd need all the help she could get, and all these people could be exactly what she was looking for. Most of them were ready to follow her, but Nicolas and Tali were too green. Maybe it was safer just going without them, but Saren's men were after them. It would be irresponsible to leave them to their devices. Chewing on her lip for a moment, she decided that she was going to offer taking them with her and walked up to the pair.

"Hey," Shepard put her hand on Tali's shoulder, who looked up at the commander, her hands stopped moving, "You guys sure took care of yourselves against those guys back in the alley."

"Yeah, we were getting pretty tired of being chased," Nicolas shrugged, "One of ours got killed, as I said."

"And we weren't able to recover the body. The keepers have surely cleaned him out by now," Tali's voice was a bit more than a faint whisper.

"I bet he is at peace, Tali. Take comfort in that thought," Shepard squeezed Tali's shoulder lightly. The girl nodded and Jane continued, "Saren's men are surely still after you, so if I'm sent after him, I want you guys with me, at least for protection."

"Commander," Nicolas looked at Jane in the eyes, his face grim, "where on Eden Prime did you land?"

"It was a farming town a few kilometres outside Constant, why do you ask?"

"How many survived the geth attack?" Nicolas' hands shook at his side.

Shepard blinked a couple of times, her brow furrowed as Nicolas' predicament dawned on her, "Th- The whole town was wiped out save for the six survivors the vids interviewed."

Nicolas took a few deep breaths and closed his eyes, then he spoke again, "Can Tali and I go to the Honorata and get our stuff before meeting up with you again?"

Shepard nodded and Nicolas left in silence towards the docking bays near C-sec, Tali following close behind. Jane stayed in the embassy a bit longer before taking Garrus, Ashley and Kaidan to meet up with the Council, ready to uncover the rogue spectre's crimes.

…

A hunched figure faced the Honorata's airlock door, two others standing at its side. The door's lock hologram spun and displayed an orange tone as said figure waved its omnitool at it. Lights and security cameras flickered on and off, having fallen victim to hacking attacks.

"Just a second…" the door cycled to green and whooshed open, "we're in, Yurdan."

A flanged voice responded, "Great. Let's get the bastards."

The hunched figure stood up and walked into the Honorata, gun raised and into the ship's internal lights which revealed the hacker to be a batarian followed by the turian Yurdan and another batarian. A quick search revealed the ship to be empty.

"Looks like we'll have to wait for them. Let's just sit on the cockpit, these seats look comfortable," Yurdan walked over to the pilot's seat and sat down with a sigh.

...

For Nicolas and Tali, it was a long walk down to where the Honorata was docked. The quarian people had not purchased preferential docking spaces on the citadel so they got sent to the very end of one of the citadel's many docking wings that spread space-ward from the presidium ring. A small view-port revealed the ship held up by a couple of docking clamps, and a docking sleeve attached to the airlock near the ship's front. The number of civilians at this point were virtually zero. There were a few groups of salarians a couple of docking bays back, but the initial deafening murmur of the docks had died down to almost complete silence. Tali had walked slightly behind Nicolas all the way to the ship, and he hadn't spoken a word since they left the presidium but she knew he needed his space so she decided not to break the silence.

At the Honorata's airlock, Nicolas touched the door control panel and sighed, resting his forehead on the door as the lock cycled, "I'm sorry about Keenah. I couldn't let Jacobus hurt you, and he would've gotten us for sure if we'd turned back."

"You did the right thing, Nicolas. I think Keenah would've wanted us to carry on, like you said back there." Tali walked past him into the ship as the blast doors opened. When the airlock closed and opened into the ship, they walked in to see two batarians and a small turian in grey armour. Tali drew her pistol but it was batted off her hands by one of the batarians. The other one jumped on Nicolas and they fell to the floor, punching at each other's faces while the turian sat and watched.

The taste of iron filled Nicolas' mouth and he felt he was losing consciousness as the batarian began strangling him. The sounds of Tali struggling to keep her batarian from killing her brought him back for a second of clarity and he noticed the batarian hadn't bothered immobilizing him. Mustering up his strength, Nicolas focused on the batarian's face and brought his hands up to it. He quickly placed his thumbs on the top row of eyes and squeezed as hard as he could. As he expected, the batarian let go of Nicolas' neck to aid his eyes but he wasn't about to stop pushing. The batarian panicked as Nicolas steadily applied more pressure, and then he let go of one eye to reach for his pistol on his thigh. Without a second thought, he brought it up to the batarian's chin and ended the alien's suffering. He was about to shoot the other two assailants when another gun whirring to life got his attention.

"DROP IT! Or the quarian bitch gets her brains blown out!"

It was the turian. The batarian sat on the floor, his legs stretched outward with Tali sitting in front of him, her back towards the batarian. One of his arms was around her neck, the other was holding her arms in place and the turian stood to the side, holding Tali's gun to her head. Nicolas slowly lowered the gun to the floor. Passing Tali's handgun to the batarian, the small turian walked up to Nicolas and kicked him in the face. He fell backwards, banging the back of his head on the floor and went unconscious. He was out cold for a good ten seconds before he came to, a zip tie holding his hands together behind his back. Tali sat beside him on the bridge of the Honorata, their backs against a wall. The small turian lowered himself on the balls of his feet in front of the two, a look of satisfaction on his face.

"I kind of have the feeling Jacobus was your mentor or something, right? Look, we had to kill him, kid. I'm sorry." Nicolas looked into the turian's eyes. He really felt bad that the teenager in front of him had to get involved in this mess.

"This isn't about Jacobus, I want the recordings the quarian stole." The boy's voice was level and his tone was calm but his mouth was pulled back into a snarl.

"Sorry, _turian_ , but we don't have them." It was Tali who spoke this time, with more annoyance than anything else.

Standing up, the turian paced around the bridge, breathing deeply and staring at the pair. He stopped in front of Nicolas and punched him across the face, hard. A piece of tooth flew out and landed in a spatter of blood on Tali's visor.

"Could you keep your mouth shut when they punch you?"

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize it might bother you since you have a fucking _helmet_ on!"

"Enough!" The turian grabbed Nicolas' hair, "Where are the recordings?" He was met with a scowl from Nicolas and an almost imperceptible snicker from Tali. One of the young turian's lower eyelids twitched for a second before he took his gun out and pointed it at Tali, "Tell me, you filthy quarian."

Tali stared into the gun's barrel without uttering a word. She wouldn't give Saren's pawns any information. Yurdan's hand started shaking, "Tell me right now!" His voice was faltering and the tone became more elevated with each word. Finally, he pointed it at Nicolas, "RIGHT NOW!"

Once again met with silence, the last batarian walked up and snatched the gun from the shaking turian hands. He inspected it, disabled the safety and unloaded five rounds into Nicolas' right leg. Hysterical, pained screams followed as Nicolas thrashed around before struggling to stay in control to avoid damaging his leg any further. Tali panicked and yelled at the turian that they didn't have the recording anymore and that the information was public anyway. The teenager looked surprised and began backing away as the batarian frowned for a moment of thought and started laughing. Without warning, five more rounds were shot into Nicolas' other and when the batarian was able to stop laughing, he leaned in close to Tali's visor, fogging it up with his breath.

His voice boomed within Tali's helmet, "Then we can have our fun with you guys until you can't scream anymore. Yurdan, get takeoff clearance and take us out of Citadel space!"

Nicolas' translator came to life with Hal's voice, "I'm working on accessing the ship's systems, Nicolas! Hold on for a couple more minutes!" that was enough to renew his energies and he turned towards Tali, which was squirming away from the batarian.

He needed to stall the alien before Tali got hurt. Finding a shard of broken tooth in his mouth, he spat blood and tooth fragments at the batarian, who jumped away in disgust and stood up, staring in disbelief at the human, which smiled with a mischevious grin and teeth coated in red.

"Your mama's so fat, if she walks in front of a datapad showing blasto, I miss out on the whole movie." Nicolas did his best to keep from falling asleep due to blood loss and kept smiling. The batarian was caught off guard and all his four eyes opened wide before using his gun to whip Nicolas on the cheek, cracking his jaw.

In the cockpit, Yurdan held Tali's gun and rotated it in his hands. The people in the back of the ship had killed his father, but his partner was torturing them. Were they to be held responsible for killing Jacobus if it was in self defense? It was all Saren's fault. If he hadn't approached Jacobus, he'd still be alive. _Spirits guide me._ He tried meditating to drown out the struggling noises and Nicolas' pained groans, whatever that batarian was doing in the back, it wasn't right. They were halfway to the relay, and if he wanted to help his hostages, it had to be now.

Hal hacked into Tali's translator and spoke to both her and Nicolas, "I'm venting this ship in five seconds. Brace yourself."

Nicolas and Tali held onto the floor's edges and awaited depressurization. When it came, the Honorata's blast door opened abruptly and sucked the batarian and the turian into space. Nicolas opened his mouth and let the air escape his lungs to avoid popping them and his ears adjusted painfully. He closed his stinging eyes and awaited pressurization trying his best to keep calm. Soon enough, the blast doors closed and air hissed into the bridge.

Nicolas gasped for air for a couple of seconds. He tried to speak, but his jaw crunched as he tried to modulate. Tali got up, slid her arms under her legs and with a swift motion, snapped the zip ties off. Nicolas was a bloody mess, and it was imperative that she get him to Shepard, surely she would have a medical team at her disposal. Opening her omnitool, she sent a private message to the commander and looked at her companion.

"Wanna move?" Tali asked, Nicolas shook his head, "I'm taking you to Shepard right now, just hold on until we get there. The medigel from your suit should keep you alive."

Nicolas nodded as Tali sat on the pilot's seat, setting a course to return to the Citadel. She received a message shortly. They were to meet with Shepard in space and dock the Honorata on the commander's ship the Normandy a few klicks away from the Citadel and board immediately. Alliance ships would later retrieve the Honorata and keep it stored until Tali's return.

After reprogramming the course for the coordinates Shepard gave her, she walked back to the crew quarters, looking quickly over to Nicolas as she went by. Picking up her bag and Nicolas' she walked back towards the cockpit, dropping them off at the airlock. Nicolas looked up at her as she drew closer, blood dripping continuously from his chin. A hand on his shoulder, she gently tilted him forward and used her omnitool to cut him loose from the zipties.

"Can you get up, Nicolas?" the human shook his head at Tali's question. She sighed and put her hands on her hips, "Exactly how much do you weigh?"

Nicolas gave her an unamused look and huffed through his nose, blood spattering over his chest plate. Green medigel coated the bullet wounds on his thighs, holding the blood on the inside of the wound. Tali kneeled beside Nicolas and circled her arms under his. Straightening up her back, she lifted. Nicolas was a lot heavier than she expected, but she was able to lift him and they began moving towards the airlock. Halfway there, a dull thump came from under Nicolas and he seemed to weigh a lot less. Looking behind him as they walked, Tali saw one of Nicolas' legs on the floor. With wide eyes she looked at his face and saw he was unconscious. She hadn't noticed his worsening condition from concentrating too much on not dropping him and now she had to leave him on the floor before she vomited in her mask. Hands shaking, she took a medigel syringe from a pouch on her thigh and applied it to the now bleeding wound that Nicolas sported at the end of his short leg. Looking up to his face, she was horrified to notice that he wasn't breathing. But before she could try doing CPR, a humming came from the suit and then a sharp thud that made Nicolas' chest bounce a couple of centimeters in the air. The suit's defibrillator was successful at reanimating Nicolas and he started breathing normally. _Keelah, I hope Shepard gets here fast._

A moment later, the ship's hull thudded and the airlock began cycling. The door opened and Ashley Williams came in, holding up her rifle, flanked by Kaidan Alenko and Shepard followed by a grey haired, older woman.

"It's just us! Come quickly!" Tali yelled in the direction of the airlock. Ashley heard Tali immediately and jogged over, followed by the rest of the group. The older woman walked past them all and looked over Tali quickly before examining Nicolas. She ordered Ashley and Kaidan to carry him back to the infirmary and the whole group left the Honorata as quickly as their feet could take them.

Once on the Normandy, Shepard spun on her heels and put her hands on Tali's shoulders, a sombre look on her face, "How did this happen?"

Tali told of the events transpired and Shepard frowned before letting go of the quarian's shoulders and crossing her arms over her chest.

"I should never have let you go by yourselves. It was stupid to assume that the two of you could hold off against an ambush alone, you're not even trained!" Jane spun around again and started walking down the Normandy's long bridge, going for the medbay on the next deck, with Tali following closely behind.

"Shepard, we're not completely incompetent! Saren's men were all dead before you got to us."

"What are you getting at, Tali? That I should just leave you to your devices and fend off for yourselves?"

"No! Let us fight alongside you! Saren is now our problem too!"

Going down a flight of stairs, the pair walked into the Normandy's mess hall, on the right side were some windows that showed the medbay, where the older woman loomed over Nicolas which was now missing both his legs. A robotic arm had cut off his armour the two wounds at the height of his thighs. Seeing this, Tali brought her hands up to her faceplate and ran for the medbay door, it opened and she waked up to the woman.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS OTHER LEG! IT WAS THERE WHEN I GAVE HIM TO YOU, YOU BOSH'TET!"

The woman held her arms up as Shepard cought up to Tali and grabbed her forearm, stopping her in her tracks.

"Don't shout in the medbay! The other leg was too damaged to save, the bullets had fragmented inside the leg and reparation of it all would have put Nicolas' life at risk. Trust me, Tali'Zorah, if I could put them back on him, I would have." The doctor talked quick but clearly as Tali began to calm down.

"This is Doctor Chakwas, Tali. She's patched up more people than you could imagine, so trust her judgement." Shepard let go of Tali's arm and they all left the medbay to sit at the mess hall.

Doctor Chakwas joined the tips of her fingers on top of the table, "Nicolas is stable, but I put him in an induced coma for now because of the blood loss. Since we're near the Citadel, it would be wise to head back and purchase some basic leg prosthesis for him and have them attached immediately to reduce the psychological stress of losing his limbs. I did a quick check and found some Seraphtec legs for five hundred credits each which should suffice, and which he should be able to pay for once he wakes up."

Tali wringed her hands together, looking every now and then at the window through which she could see Nicolas. She looked down at her hands and spoke, "I can pay for them if he can't. He's done enough for me to earn that. Send me the store details and I'll buy them right now."

Nodding, Chakwas brought her omnitool up and sent the information over. After that was sent, she excused herself and went back to the medbay to check on Nicolas and tell the pilot to head back for the Citadel. A service elevator nearby opened and Garrus Vakarian walked out and sat beside Tali and Jane. Looking towards the medbay and then at Tali, he sighed through his nose before speaking, "That human is hard to kill, and looks like you two make a good duo when it comes to fighting."

Tali laughed once and spoke in a tired monotone, "We do what we can. I just want him to wake up and get better so we can join you and go after Saren."

Garrus' mandibles widened, "So you are staying on the Normandy?" he shifted his gaze to Shepard, which frowned.

"If you're going to be on the Normandy, you'll have to help the crew out with taking care of the ship. If you come with the ground team, you have to know that the risk of dying is real, Tali, and I can't be slowed down on this mission." Shepard looked at Tali with a stern face and her gaze shifted between Tali's glowing eyes.

The quarian swallowed and looked down at her hands again before looking back up at Shepard, "I am proficient with maintaining ships and I've been told that Nicolas is a VI technician. We won't be a dead-weight on this ship, Shepard, you can be sure of that. About being on the ground team, I'm not afraid of what can happen to me or Nicolas if we go with you, but I am afraid of what might happen if we just sit in a corner and do nothing. I want to take Saren down just as much as you do."

Shepard smiled and patted on Tali's back, "That's what I like to hear Tali. Go to the lower deck and speak to Engineer Adams, I'm sure he will have things for you to help out with."

Nodding, Tali stood up and left for the elevator as Garrus and Shepard watched her go. Garrus' flanging voice filled the silence, "So what do we do now, commander?"

"We go get the archaeologist. After we go to the Citadel to get Nicolas a new pair of legs, Therum will be three days away, so hopefully he'll be awake and good to go by then." Shepard chewed on her lower lip as she turned to look at the turian sitting beside her.

"You want to throw him straight into battle?" Garrus' mandibles tightened around his jaw and his brow plates lowered into a confused frown.

"I want him for support," she specified, "I don't need a VI technician in the Normandy, what with Adams being freer to take care of those duties now that Tali can work for him. I need to see if Nicolas'll be of any use."

"And if he's not?"

"Then he'll have to learn on the fly. I hate to say it, but this mission has no space for freeloaders," Jane got up and walked towards the top deck, "Get something to eat, Garrus, the night shift will begin soon."

* * *

 **So Therum is coming up on the next chapter! Hope you enjoyed this one!  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter number 7!**

 **All characters, settings and themes belong to bioware, no copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

It was 0500 standard galactic time, an hour before the Normandy's day shift began. Tali sat in the dimly lit medbay on an empty bed. Medical monitors emitted low beeps every second, keeping track of an unconscious Nicolas' life signs, suddenly the medbay doors whooshed open.

"Can't sleep?" Garrus walked in and stood at Nicolas' bed's feet. His flanging voice filled the near absolute silence within the room.

"The Normandy is too quiet for me to sleep well. In the fleet, silence generally meant certain systems were failing. Doctor Chakwas also said he should be waking up sometime around 0600 so I came to see him just in case. What about you?" Tali spoke softly, remembering Chakwas scolding her for screaming the previous day.

"I don't sleep much in general," he turned his head to face Tali and chuckled once, "After all he's been through, I was interested how the new legs would look on, uh… Nicolas, was it?" Garrus pointed a finger at Nicolas and Tali nodded, "It's amazing how prosthetics have progressed, I heard the doctor said he'd be walking by today."

"Yeah… he's helped me out a ton these last few days and Chakwas was very kind. I didn't expect humans to be like this," Tali leaned back and put her weight on her hands.

Garrus' mandibles widened into a turian smile, "You'll be glad to know most humans in the Normandy are nice people, Ashley Williams maybe not so much, or the older human without a fringe."

Tali laughed and relaxed her shoulders, Garrus' acute hearing noticed a small sigh that the envirosuit's speakers failed to amplify, "I think you mean hair, and you're talking about Pressley, the second in command to Shepard."

"It wouldn't do you guys any good to talk secretly about the XO." A weak gravelly voice caught their attention, "Could any of you be awesome and go get me a glass of water? I have the worst hangover ever."

Nicolas' eyes were barely open and he didn't even try to move his limbs, he hurt all over. Before Garrus could react, Tali got up and made a beeline for the medbay entrance and then to the mess hall.

Nicolas' eyes followed Tali out, then he turned to the turian in front of him, "Garrus, right?" Garrus nodded at Nicolas' question, "How long've I been out?"

"Just a night, you weren't _that_ badly hurt. No need to be squeamish, human." Nicolas' eyes widened at the mean comment but relaxed when he saw the turian smiling, mandibles spread wide.

"Fuck you, Big Bird. You let me know how it feels next time you get shot," Nicolas lifted an arm and waved Garrus' comment off lazily. He tried to chuckle, but his hips hurt and his throat was too dry to laugh anyway. Frowning with closed eyes, he asked, "What's he damage? I can't really lift my neck."

Not being prepared for this question, Garrus looked over his shoulder, out the window into the mess hall. Tali was returning, but he had to say something, "There's a scar on the left side of your jaw where it broke, a Teflon plate is keeping it together. There's a place in the back of your head where you don't have… hair; and your legs… well…" the door to the medbay opened and Tali walked up to Nicolas, handing him the glass of water, which he gulped down quickly before thanking her, "maybe you should see for yourself."

Nicolas' eyes widened for a moment, as he slowly propped himself on his elbows, he grunted, "Oh god don't tell me that fucking batarian shot my legs off," once he was able to look down to his feet, he was quiet after a sharp gasp. His eyebrows went up until his forehead wrinkled and he said, "Would you look at that, the bastard did it! I've still got my junk on me, though, right?"

Garrus chuckled at the human's sense of humor, even after losing both his legs, "Unless your _junk_ is on your ankles, they should still be around. The prostheses start at your thighs."

"So that explains the bald patch," Nicolas felt the back of his head and found the spot where the implant to interface with the legs had been installed. He looked at Tali, "And you got off without a scratch! I do all the dirty work and all you've had to do is take some antibiotics!"

"I wasn't the one taunting batarians, Nicolas," Tali chuckled.

"Savages is what they are." Nicolas laid back down on the bed, tapping on his new knee, making a metallic tap sound.

"Great, another racist." Garrus quipped, smiling before he looked at his omnitool, "I'm gonna get a shower before the day shift starts, catch you guys later."

Both Nicolas and Tali nodded as Garrus left, Tali broke the silence that he left, "I have a question, Nicolas, about yesterday."

"I don't remember much of it, Tali. If you'll recall, I was unconscious for the bigger part of it."

"But you do remember when the ship was vented, right?"

A small electric discharge came from Nicolas' translator implant and Hal's voice whispered in his head, "Repeat after me: When the pirates attacked the Langdon, I made an application that could hack into a ship's subsystems and vent the decks. When we were captured, I activated it and waited."

Nicolas repeated after Hal and Tali tilted her head to the side, "That was actually really smart, for a human."

"And I thought I was the racist. It was just a moment of genius, don't expect it to happen often," Nicolas shrugged.

Tali laughed until the medbay doors opened once again, this time admitting Jane Shepard, her hair in a bun and wearing tidy military casuals. They greeted the commander in unison and Tali excused herself, leaving for the lower deck to begin the day's duties. Shepard leaned against the window at the feet of Nicolas' bed and crossed her arms over her chest.

"How're your legs feeling, Mr. Baker?"

"Oh god, it's just Nicolas, commander. Mr. Baker was my dad. Ummm, they have sensory input on the soles and shins, and those feel just fine. How much do I owe you for them?"

"Tali paid for them, you owe her a thousand credits, I think."

Nicolas raised his eyebrows, "Huh, I would've thought they'd be more expensive."

"The Normandy's doctor, Karin Chakwas has discounts on medical supplies and equipment. I'm not really here to discuss the price of your new legs, though Nicolas. You know what we're doing here on the Normandy?"

Nicolas chewed on the inside of his cheek before answering, "You're going after Saren, but I see you have Tali and Garrus aboard too, so it's not an Alliance mission, is it?"

"Good eye, this mission was issued by the council. I'm a Spectre now."

"Hmmm… I'd bow, commander, but I don't think I can move my legs," he smiled and Jane returned the gesture, he continued, "So what does that mean for me? Your ship must be fully staffed, so I don't see what I could be useful for, being a VI technician."

"Sadly, you're right," Shepard sighed, "and we don't have space for tourists on this job. Now, that doesn't mean you're useless. As far as I know, you've been present for at least three deaths. How do you feel about that?"

"I guess it was them or me. Some I didn't even see die, so I don't feel too bad about it. It's just weird trying to justify it, I'd rather think I didn't really have an option," Nicolas shrugged.

"On this mission, we'll be encountering lots of threats, be them geth or Saren's followers, and I'll take all the help I can get. I know that you can shoot a gun, and with proper training, I think you can actually get something done without hurting yourself, do you feel up for it?"

"I'd be glad to help, commander. Saren's people have tried to kill me too many times, so I think my chances of living are a lot better on this ship. Just let me know what to shoot at." Nicolas extended his hand towards the commander. She walked up smiling and shook it.

"Glad to hear it. After breakfast, I'll have Garrus train you for the next couple of days and help you get used to your legs. If I feel that you're ready, you'll be coming with the ground team to Therum, where we have to pick up a scientist that can help us find Saren. I've gotta go, but try getting up as soon as you can, the mess sergeant hates it when people are late for breakfast."

"Yes ma'am." Nicolas made a swift salute as the commander walked out of the medbay, leaving him alone in the white room. Looking out the window, he saw the crew of the Normandy forming a line at the mess hall, awaiting their breakfast.

"While you were asleep, I heard Doctor Chakwas say your brain should start interfacing with your legs shortly after you woke up, maybe you should give them a try." Hal spoke again through Nicolas' translator.

"Good save back then, thanks Hal. Where's the omnitool? Are there clothes anywhere nearby?" Nicolas asked the air as he propped himself on his elbows and looked as his feet as he tried to rotate the ankles.

A feminine voice came from the entrance to the medbay, a thick british accent marking the words, "Your omnitool is in the second drawer to your left, there's also alliance standard fatigues in there for you to change into. If I may ask, who is Hal?"

"Hal's a VI on my omnitool that has access to my translator," Nicolas tapped his temple as the servo's squeaked faintly on his ankles and the feet rotated, "I take it you're doctor Chakwas?"

"Indeed. Ms. Zorah brought you to us in very bad shape, but I'm glad to see you're feeling alright," the doctor handed Nicolas another glass of water, which he took and thanked before gulping it down, "I heard the commander will want you in the field in the near future. I would recommend buying new armour from the requisitions officer in the lower deck. I would also suggest taking a shower."

"I'm sorry if my smell's offending, doctor, haven't really had the chance to rest the last couple of days," Nicolas smiled as he spun to let his legs dangle off the edge of the bed, letting the knees begin rotating, "I'll be going straight for the shower as soon as I can walk."

"Very good. If you feel itching where the legs end or any pain coming from within the prostheses, come see me right away." With this, Doctor Chakwas turned around to sit at her desk, facing the mess hall on the other side of the window.

"So no scans, no flashlight to the eye or anything?" Nicolas jumped off the bed and clanged on the floor, almost making him jump in surprise. The doctor looked over her shoulder and chuckled.

"I left you the whole night in a state of the art infirmary, Mr. Baker. If there were something wrong, the medbay itself would've woken me up."

When Nicolas exited the medbay, his omnitool pinged, it was a message from Dr. Chakwas containing the user manual for his new legs. Giving it a quick skim, he hurried in his hospital tunic to the bathroom. The servos and tensile muscles of the leg squeaked a bit and before going into the shower, the bathroom smelled like a new car because of the new materials in the prostheses. Thick dark grey synthetic muscle cords joined the ankle with the back of the knee, which was a black ball bearing held by silver bones. The artificial muscles from the thighs dove into Nicolas' part of the leg underneath a silver ring that held the limit of Nicolas' skin in a hypoallergenic permanent adhesive. The ring could be twisted to remove the leg for maintenance, but the model was pretty basic, no fancy armour or strength enhancements. They were prosthetic legs made for veterans, after all, durable but unremarkable. That would have to change, soon.

After tying up the alliance boots covering the prosthetic feet, Nicolas walked out into the mess hall feeling on the bald spot underneath his cerebellum. Garrus poked his head around Kaidan, which sat in front of him to look at the new arrival. Standing at the short line that was left, Nicolas received his ration and took his tray to sit beside the human biotic, at a diagonal from the turian.

"Hey Garrus, hello Kaidan," greeted Nicolas. Conversation was mainly getting to know each other, but the Lieutenant spoke almost nothing before wiping his mouth clean with the back of his hand and leaving with his quickly emptied tray.

"Is he always that quiet?" Nicolas leaned forward towards Garrus which shrugged.

"He was quite talkative yesterday. Maybe it's his migraines."

"Oh right I heard that human biotics could have that problem."

"Yes, well, it's about time to start your training," Garrus wiped his mouth on a small serviette and stood slowly. He walked to leave his tray with the mess sergeant, followed closely by Nicolas. They walked together to the cargo elevator that would take them to the cargo hold. When the doors opened on the lower deck, Nicolas was greeted to the sight of a large high ceilinged deck, Mako wheels were put sideways along the floor in a straight line towards the Normandy's Mako itself at the very end of the cargo hold. Garrus had installed an obstacle course for Nicolas to traverse. Many hours of cursing and falling over ensued.

"Come on, Nicolas, you're losing too much speed at the Mako!" Garrus cupped his hands around his mouth from near the elevator as Nicolas jumped between the holes on the mako's wheels, heading for the Mako at the end.

"These legs weren't made to jump three meters into the air, Garrus!"

"Neither were the originals! You have to vault over it! Use your arms!" the turian yelled as Tali emerged from the Eezo Core chamber, ready to go to lunch. She stopped at the door to the elevator and watched as Nicolas struggled to not trip on the tires. She was joined by a smirking Ashley Williams and they both had to sidestep to avoid a grumpy Wrex, tired of all the noise that made his morning nap impossible.

Nicolas stood on the Mako in exercise clothes, sweating like a pig and panting, "Let's see you do the course, lizard man!"

Garrus chuckled as he unclasped the top parts of his armour, leaving behind the heavy plates on the floor. Tali couldn't help but hold her breath as the turian rolled his neck around in his undershirt and leg armour, skipping a couple of times on the spot in preparation for running the course.

"Well go on then! I don't wanna miss lunch!" Nicolas shouted from atop the Mako.

With a cocky smile, Garrus began skipping towards the tires and started jumping from hole to hole, his head barely bobbed as he traversed the obstacle course with amazing agility. Using one hand, he vaulted over the front of the Mako and ran to the opposite end of the cargo bay, bouncing off the wall to sprint back to the Mako, ending the course by jumping to the vehicle's roof. Garrus stretched his hands out in triumph as his omnitool displayed a time half as long as Nicolas' best. The human jumped off the Mako with a huff and rolled his shoulders, followed by the smiling turian.

"It's not fair if you're two heads taller than me."

"If you want, I can soften the Mako's suspension so it sinks a bit," Garrus smiled behind Nicolas and winked an eye at Tali, who began giggling at Nicolas' expense. Grabbing a towel, he threw it at the human, which caught it with the back of his head.

"Yeah laugh it off, you two. After lunch, I'm modifying these." Nicolas knocked on his knee as they piled into the elevator and he towelled off the sweat on his neck and face.

"It's actually gonna be gun maintenance and military communications for you, then a high reparation meal and back to the obstacle course," the turian said as they walked towards the mess sergeant.

The reparation meal was interesting, to say the least. The technology was reserved for long missions where a squad wouldn't have time to wait through sprains and overburdening of the muscles. Nicolas had to eat a bar of protein that felt like yeast and then wait. The protein was held together by digestible nanobots. These would usher the repairing protein into muscle fibers and there it would lay dormant, until after twenty minutes had passed, Nicolas had to swallow an activation pill. The chemicals from the pill would enter his circulatory system and activate the nanobots within the muscles, which would use the proteins to repair the strained muscle mass in a matter of minutes. The next three hours were spent running the obstacle course with little improvement, let alone the fact that he had to do target practice at the same time.

After training was done for the day, Nicolas helped Garrus roll the spare tires back into their storage units at the far wall behind the Mako's spot. The turian then fetched a creeper and layed down on it before rolling underneath the Mako to "calibrate it", whatever that meant. Finding himself unoccupied, Nicolas opened his omnitool and searched for schematics for synthetic muscle, Tali could help him connecting them to the actual legs later. He walked over to the weapons bench, where Ashley stood wiping down a section of an assault rifle barrel. Hearing the faint squeaking of the knee's bearings, she looked over her shoulder and smiled at the new arrival.

"You should put some oil on those bearings, sounds like a squeaky toy for dogs."

"Yeah I'm gonna be taking them apart tonight. It was easier to move with the meaty legs. These are more for walking to the grocery store and back."

Ashley laughed and then nodded at the schematics that were displayed on his omnitool, "Are you gonna need anything?"

Nicolas looked around the bench and found the fabricator at the corner, "If it's alright with you, I'd like half the bench space and the fabricator there," he pointed at the material printer at the end.

"Oh I was done with the rifle anyway, I just have to assemble it. Any materials you want for the fabricator?"

Looking through the schematics, Nicolas listed the metals he would need to smelt together and mold. When he was done, Ashley pointed over her shoulder at a sleeping Wrex, "I'd love to help you, Squeakers, but that guy is sitting on the crate that holds the materials and I'm not really feeling like waking him up."

Nicolas eyed the krogan and found his throat to be really dry all of a sudden. He walked towards him until he was at arm's length and stuttered, "Uh… Wrex?"

A red eye shot open and found the human face that was looking at it. It almost semed as if it was burning a hole into Nicolas' forehead, and he did his best not to cower under the stare. A booming voice emanated from the hulking alien, "What?"

"See umm… I want to make my leg better and I need materials and-"

"Get to the point, human."

"I need materials that are in the crate you're leaning against, and I didn't want to move you out of the way." _Shit, bad choice of words!_ Nicolas kicked himself mentally as the krogan turned his head to look at him with both eyes.

"…Move me?"

"You know, like nudge you, just a little," Nicolas gestured towards the lid of the crate as the krogan stood and towered over the human, Ashley eyed the krogan and began reassembling her rifle, not taking her eyes off the alien.

Wrex saw the Gunnery sergeant through his peripheral vision and decided not to take the blubbering welp too seriously. He stepped over to a structural rib on the side of the cargo bay and pointed at it, turning his head towards Nicolas, "Is there anything you need from this pillar?"

"Uh… No?" Nicolas blinked at the krogan, not realizing the sarcasm in his voice.

"Good. Don't bother me again," with that, he leaned against the structure and closed his eyes.

Wasting no time, Nicolas grabbed metal blocks from within the crate and retreated back towards the weapons bench. Ashley was scowling at the krogan but her features softened when she looked at Nicolas. Feeding the blocks into the fabricator, he uploaded the muscle chord schematics. He leaned on the edge of the bench as the machine began manufacturing the cables and Ashley finished reassembling the rifle in silence. When she was done, she looked at Nicolas' prostheses. After a few seconds, Nicolas noticed and asked, "See anything you like?"

"What? Oh no, it's that- well, I have a question, I hope it won't sound too blunt."

"Shoot, Ashley."

The gunnery chief massaged her right temple, "How do they… feel?"

Nicolas blinked and looked down at his feet hidden within the running shoes, "Th- these? I don't feel them. I know they're there but and I know that something is touching the soles. It's kind of hard to explain, why?"

"My dad had one," Ashley spoke matter of factly, but she inspected the rifle with a frown on her face. _Had_. "and I never really asked him about it. I just assumed he needed it after one of his deployments and that was it."

"It's not too bad, especially since I can still do the same things, I don't know how I'd manage if I couldn't walk anymore or something," Nicolas inspected the chords that the fabricator rolled out, he looked back at Ashley, "How was he?"

"Oh he was a good dad, raised us good and strong," Ashley nodded, then she smiled and switched topics, "So those cables! Are you gonna glue them to your knees and hope for the best?"

Nicolas chuckled, "I'm replacing the current ones, but I'm gonna need help with the electric output to the chords. Bigger ones consume more, but you never know how much! Unless you're a quarian, so I'm asking Tali."

Ashley nodded and folded the rifle up. After walking to her locker, she said goodnight and left for the elevator. Nicolas gathered the muscle chords and headed for the Eezo core. Tali was still working at a console, while the engineer had left almost an hour ago for a good night's sleep. As he walked in, Tali nodded at him and he sat down beside her, removing his legs and changing the muscle chords. When he was done, he asked Tali to take a look and calibrate the energy output. The quarian girl inspected the legs thoroughly before attaching some flash forged wires to them from her omnitool and calibrated the power output in a matter of minutes before handing the limp legs back.

The next day was similar for Nicolas. The Normandy made a small stop at an uncharted system to investigate a distress call from a derelict freighter vessel. Garrus was left at the LZ of the Mako to have Nicolas doing target practice for a couple of hours and then departed that night for the last Relay connection to the Knossos system, where Therum awaited.

It was 1300 on the third day aboard the Normandy for Nicolas when Jeff "Joker" Moureau, the Normandy's pilot spoke over the ship's intercom, "Commander, we've arrived at the Knossos system. Sensors indicate there has been recent traffic of unknown origin, activating stealth systems. ETA to Therum, 1500 hours."

Shepard walked out of her quarters and called a meeting for the whole ground team at the Communications room. The cargo elevator was crowded as Ashley, Garrus, Tali, Wrex and Nicolas piled in, mainly due to Wrex and his hump or whatever it was, Nicolas was too afraid to ask. The whole ground team was seated at the communications room shortly, with the commander standing in the center. Bringing up her omnitool, she turned on a screen at the back wall of the room, displaying a map showing the surroundings of an archaeological dig site.

"The operation on Therum is simple, we are to retrieve Doctor Liara T'soni from a prothean ruin inside the dig site here. With updated scans, we have detected geth activity in the vicinity, and AA guns have been installed outside, making landing the Normandy nearby impossible. The first order of business, then, will be disabling those turrets. Garrus, Ashley, Wrex and I will land on the Mako ten klicks from the dig site and head for the turrets. Once they are disabled, the Normandy will land at the dig site and the rest of the ground team will disembark for support. Geth activity has only been recent in this system, so we have reason to believe their forces won't be too formidable, but that also makes the arrival of reinforcements likely. This mission will have to be quick and effective, so I want everyone on their toes. Dismissed," the team began leaving to make preparations, but Jane called for Nicolas to stay as he was getting up from his seat, "I need you to go to the requisitions officer and get yourself a set of armour. I'm pretty sure we have some non-standard sets in storage, but otherwise, the standard issue Alliance armour should be enough."

"Should be enough? Your lack of enthusiasm is… disturbing." Nicolas raised his eyebrows at Shepard, earning a chuckle.

"I don't expect we'll see much action, but you still can't go in a borrowed off-duty uniform down there. Joker told me it was quite warm where we're landing."

"I'll take a few cold beers, then."

* * *

 **So that was Chapter 7! I was planning on getting straight to Therum, but I wanted to expand a bit on the Normandy's crew before. Don't worry, though! The next one is already written… for the most part, so I just need to check it's alright and I'll probably be uploading it by Monday.**

 **There's some parts in the story which I would like to spend more time on, but I'm afraid of ruining the general pacing. This chapter was one of those "expandings" I wanted to do and I'll be damned if it isn't just as fun as writing from canon.**

 **Let me know what you thought and I hope you enjoyed :D  
**

 **Blaze 1992:**

 **About the OC getting so beat up by a couple of thugs: I wanted to really show that Tali and Nicolas were rookies, and that they won't always be lucky. I also wanted to show the dangers of weapons technology in the ME universe as I see it. Like shields could protect you very effectively if they're on, but a single bullet can horribly maim you, if not kill you straight up.**

 **About Hal and hacking the Honorata: When Nicolas first boarded that ship, Hal stayed confined to the omnitool to avoid detection, and since he was there, his ability to monitor the world around him was limited, so he couldn't detect the thugs waiting in the ship. Also, hacking a whole ship's subsystems using the processing power of an omnitool had to take some time.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter number 8!**

 **All characters, settings and themes belong to bioware, no copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Right after the Mako left the cargo bay, the ramps closed and the internal atmosphere was cooled down. A view screen appeared near the weapons bench. The orbital optics followed the Mako as it descended from low atmosphere to the ground, getting smaller and smaller in the view screen as it descended at terminal velocity. Shepard's voice crackled over the radio, "Engaging deceleration thrusters in 3, 2, 1, mark!"

The radio went to static for a second as the Mako landed, a plume of dust rising behind it on the viewscreen. Ashley cursed at the hard landing but Shepard, Garrus and Wrex weren't phased by the impact. Nicolas could hear the ground team do a quick system's check before Shepard began speeding the Mako down the bank of a lava river. Seeing as it all seemed to be calm, Nicolas returned his attention to the disassembled rifle in front of him and he resumed cleaning the components.

Garrus' voice snared his eyes back to the orbital feed. Now much further away, he could see a small rectangle which was he Mako, speeding across the terrain. "Shepard, we have multiple hostiles, 200 meters at our ten o'clock. See 'em?"

"Affirmative. Take them out, Garrus, or I will."

"What do you mean, you'll- agh!" Garrus stopped speaking when the Mako accelerated to twice its speed, and gunshots came through the radio feed. Now the Mako was a hundred meters away from the threats, which turned out to be geth, and most of them had been blown up, with one consistently evading Garrus' turret fire.

"If you'd keep the Mako still, Shepard, I'd be able to get a bead on the damn thing!"

"I'll tell Therum's mayor to make roads, then, Garrus! Stop whining and _shoot_ the little shit!"

Nicolas could hear the sound of Wrex's laughter over the radio, albeit distant. The geth unit refused to be hit by any bullet, and then the whole strike team grunted in unison as a cloud of dust formed around the Mako. It had jumped into the air with its thrusters and landed precisely on the geth. Nicolas zoomed in on the screen and could make out the last geth dismembered on the ground where the Mako had landed.

"Skipper, if you could give us a heads up before trying to make the Mako fly, that'd be great," Ashley sounded a bit weak, maybe the bumpy ride was messing with her stomach.

"Suddenly everyone's a baby! Only one who hasn't complained yet is Wrex!"

Wrex's voice boomed over the speakers, "I won't complain, but you are a terrible driver, Shepard."

Nicolas laughed while he saw the Mako circumvent the river of Lava, heading for a valley where the beaten path started going up. He went back to his rifle and finished screwing the last component of the barrel on. The gun came to life once it was completely assembled and collapsed into its portable form. Leaving it on a corner of the table, he crouched down under it and tore open the seam of a crate containing a new set of armour. The quarter master didn't have any Devlon industries models, so he bought a standard issue Onyx medium armour. He stripped down to his underwear, his feet clanging on the cargo bay floor until he pulled the first layer jumpsuit on. This one was coarser than the old jumpsuit he had, and surely didn't saturate with medigel. The second layer was much thicker, the inside was lined with small nodes where the medigel would be distributed from the ceramic plates. Nicolas pulled the second layer on and activated the magnetic seams, making the layer skin tight.

The radio feed came back to life with Ashley's voice, "We can't beat those turrets, they have height _and_ cover."

Nicolas stood in front of the view screen joined by Tali and a recently armoured Kaidan. They watched as the Mako scaled a small hill to its right and strafed around the turrets Ashley mentioned into a geth stronghold. The vehicle's turret did short work of most of the geth while Wrex and Ashley had disembarked to open a gate that would lead them towards the dig site.

"Normandy, be advised we are entering a tunnel, expect radio silence." Shepard's voice was heard from the vidscreen and Joker answered:

"Roger, Strike team. See you on the other side."

The Mako vanished into a mountain ridge and the optics focused on the opposite exit where a couple of ground troops were waiting. Five hundred meters due North were two geth armatures, ready for an ambush. Tali pointed at them on the vidscreen and Kaidan assured her that Joker had seen them too, and was going to warn the commander once communications were restored. Soon enough, the six wheeled car practically flew out of the tunnel, crushing the first line of geth and then shot the armatures from afar.

Kaidan chuckled while he looked at the vidscreen and went to his locker to retrieve his guns, Tali sat on the materials crate and Nicolas began clasping his armour plates on. Once he reached his thighs, he noticed that as plates were clasped on, a prickling sensation would come from the second layer. Microneedles from the plates crossed the second layer to distribute medigel should a plate shatter, making it a failsafe method of wound dressing, even if it only worked once per plate.

"Normandy, we've reached terrain that the Mako can't scale. Once the AA turrets are offline, you're gonna have to extract it here." Shepard spoke over the radio, her voice was occasionally interrupted by static and grunts as she jumped off the Mako. Now barely a couple of spots on the Normandy's vidscreen, the strike team shot down a small squad of geth which were guarding the AA turrets. Soon, the strike team called for the Normandy to land at their location.

Alenko stood at the edge of the cargo bay ramp, holding on to a hydraulic piston on the side. Right behind him were Tali and Nicolas, both holding on to the Normandy's wall, battling against the wind from the ship's landing. The three jumped off and saluted the approaching commander.

Jane Shepard pointed her thumb over her shoulder, "The digsite is about a klick from here. I want Tali, Wrex, Kaidan and Garrus with me. Nicolas, I want you watching our backs, we never know where these robots might come from; and Ashley, you're doing air support from the Normandy's turret," She brought her hand up to her helmet's side, "Joker, go ahead and extract the Mako, then wait in orbit in case geth reinforcements arrive."

As the new strike team jogged towards the dig site, Nicolas walked, falling behind as he unfolded his rifle. Joker spoke through his helmet's speakers, "Strike team, there are three dropships inbound, they exited FTL just outside atmosphere. Move for the dig site quick."

 _Fuck!_ Nicolas ran after the team and stopped dead in his tracks when a deafening boom came from the dig site, then another one from where they'd come from. Joker spoke again, "Strike team, two geth armatures have landed in your vicinity. We've taken care of the dropships from up here," A _whoop!_ from Ashley could be heard in the background, "If you can clear enough distance, the Normandy can make a bombing run on the Armatures."

Kaidan yelled over the radio, "Just shoot it! It's out in the-"

Shepard interrupted, "ALENKO! That's a negative, Joker. Our armature has us pinned, you're welcome to take care of the other one if Nicolas is out of the danger zone."

Nicolas brought his hand up to his helmet, "Joker, go ahead with the second armature, I'm heading for Shepard's position now."

"Roger that, Normandy out."

As Nicolas ran, he looked back and saw a small dot descending from inside orange clouds high in the sky. It made a sharp turn and silently shot out a projectile glowing white at the spot where the Normandy had landed before. The sound took a couple of seconds to reach him, and the shockwave from the projectile's explosion made Nicolas lose his footing and fall to the ground even if it was almost a kilometre away. He rose to his feet as Joker and Ashley celebrated over the radio and he ran two hundred more meters before he saw the dig site clearing.

A walkway leading to the hole in the ground where Doctor Liara T'soni hopefully awaited had been blocked by a hulking geth, towering ten meters above the ground. It stood on its four legs and shot compact spheres of plasma at half melted crates behind which the strike team was huddled, occasionally peeping out to fire at large geth units in red armour and normal geth troops with rocket launchers. Nicolas took out a heavy block of tungsten from his belt and loaded it into the rifle. He kneeled and rested his left elbow on his left knee, holding the rifle's scope up to his eye. Finding one of the geth in red armour, he pointed slightly above and let the air out of his lungs slowly as he pulled the trigger. The rifle kicked back and a _whoomp_ sound lifted dust around him. Fighting against the recoil, he pointed towards the geth again to confirm that its head was gone.

Shepard was about to look around the crate's corner when a skinny geth jumped on all fours up and over the crate. Firing from the hip, she decimated the robot's head and vented the assault rifle. A sniper rifle registered in the distance and she heard a faint _fwip_ lead to the sound of a shattering plate. Looking around the corner, she spotted a headless juggernaut on the ground and another bullet made impact on a rocket trooper's face.

"We've got Nicolas sniping the smaller units! Focus fire on the armature!" Shepard yelled into her helmet's microphone before making a strafing run for a nearby crate that was less punished by the armature's blasts.

The towering geth was no match for the combined firepower of the whole squad and once its shields had been overloaded by the hail of bullets, its white armour began splintering and shattering. Sparks flew as internal circuitry was ravaged and coolant fluid spurted from the armature's neck and body until it finally collapsed and powered down. A few seconds later, it exploded in a shower of blue sparks and shrapnel that flew all the way to Nicolas' vicinity.

"Joker, the armature's been taken care of. How're things looking from your side?"

Nicolas stood and started jogging towards the team, he was done being alone on the field. Joker's voice came through the radio and Nicolas stopped to listen and look for the Normandy in the skies, "Not good, commander. There's a geth cruiser that has just left FTL a couple of light seconds away. I need to take care of it before it comes close enough to fire. Let me know when you need extraction, but it would be great if you'd make it quick!"

Nicolas resumed jogging towards the dig site as Shepard responded over the radio, "Copy that, good luck, Normandy! Nicolas! Are you coming this way?"

He jogged as he folded his rifle and attached it to his back, then he brought a hand up to his helmet, "Affirmative, commander. I'll be with you guys in a second."

"I need you watching over the dig site entrance, in case any stragglers were left. It's probable that we'll lose signal down there, but we'll be back here ASAP."

"Very good, Shepard, see you in a bit." Nicolas cursed to himself as he changed his direction to a higher hill near the entrance. Laying down on the ground, he unfolded his rifle and looked over the terrain, seeing the smoking crater where the second armature was.

From the tunnel the Mako had come some time ago, a mining car drove out. Nicolas pulled his rifle up and inspected the vehicle. _12…14…16…18… 18 geth… and is that…a krogan?_ Nicolas put his hand on his helmet once more, "Shepard, do you read me?"

A half garbled response came back, "Not too good, Nicolas, what's the situation?"

"I've got a rather large squad of hostiles headed towards us, they're on a mining vehicle…" Nicolas awaited a response, but he was met with silence, "What should I do?"

"…Can you handle it?" There was no hint of any emotion in the response, no good mood and no bad mood, only a serious and sincere question.

Nicolas looked through the scope again, surely enough, there were no more and no less enemies on the vehicle, and they were steadily closing in. He _needed_ to do this, for the team, "Yeah Shepard, I'll do it."

"Good. Shepard out."

Hal's voice came through his translator, "There's wind coming from the east, 15 knots. Distance: 800 meters."

Nicolas followed the vehicle and moved his sights slightly to the right. He pulled the trigger and two geth units fell limp from the car, which swerved to the sides of the path and began zig zagging towards the spot where the Mako once was. Nicolas waited a second for his rifle to cool down and took aim again. The next shot pushed three geths off the car but one got up and ran after the vehicle. Another shot, which flied wide, and the mining car skidded to a stop at the base of the path leading up to the digsite. Fifteen geth and a krogan ran for cover as Nicolas used this time to pick off the lone geth that was still running.

Some fifty meters down, the strike team was looking for a way into the prothean ruins to save Dr. Liara T'soni. Shepard walked around the lowest reaches of the mine, looking for evidence of a landslide where stones could be pushed out of the way. Wrex whacked his shotgun against the ruin's walls, trying to find hollow sections, and Garrus walked around, waiting for something to happen. A hidden control panel caught his eye, and after walking up to it, he realized it could be opened through a rather simple lock mechanism.

"Hmmmm…" Garrus tilted his head to the side, eyeing the colored buttons on the panel and he pressed one, an 'incorrect' tone piped up. Trying again, he got a 'ding', and he continued his trial and error.

Without taking his eye off the scope, Nicolas whispered, "Hal, can you eavesdrop on their radio chatter?"

"Scanning for radio frequencies, this may take some time, Nicolas."

Nicolas nodded, hoping Hal could somehow notice and swept the path, looking for the rest of the enemies. He spotted the krogan popping out of cover and took a wild shot, missing by a meter. Looking again, he saw a geth flashlight head and shot, overheating his rifle but blowing the robot's head into nuts and bolts.

"Radio channel acquired, streaming."

A low growl came through Nicolas' helmet speakers, "You two, take care of the sniper. The rest are with me."

Nicolas' eyes widened behind his helmet's visor as his rifle finished venting and bullets began whizzing by and thudding on the ground near him. He sprinted for a small bump of dirt behind him, his shield generator whirring strenuously whenever a stray bullet hit him. Resting his rifle on the dirt, he pointed at the group of thirteen that was sprinting at the entrance. A geth lost a leg after being hit by a tungsten round, then another shot missed the krogan's head by half a meter but disabled a geth unit behind him. The squad had reached the second armature's crater, only a few minutes before they would reach the entrance, and they had ample cover, so Nicolas focused on the pair of geth that were laying a constant barrage of fire towards him, occasionally hitting his shields and otherwise firing wide. A kilometre was not adequate for geth assault rifle fire. Nicolas was about to take a shot at the geth firing at him when the ground jolted underneath him and threw his shot wide.

Wrex, Tali, Kaidan and Shepard stared at a wide-eyed turian, hands raised above his head as he stood in front of a control panel. A few meters away from them, a mining laser had just burned a hole through the ruin's walls and deep into the planet's crust.

"…Whoops?" Garrus' mandibles quivered.

Nicolas had killed three of the krogan's squad by the time they were 400 meters away. Taking aim, he shot down a fourth geth trooper, only seven were left. Aiming again, he realized one of the geth in the squad had stopped, and Nicolas was soon looking at the business end of a rocket heading straight for him. He stood up and strafed as quickly as he could before diving for the ground and getting showered by dirt the rocket had blown up. He brought his rifle up once more to fire at the krogan, but the alien's shields shrugged off his first shot, and it started running up the ramp leading to the dig site. Nicolas was able to kill one more geth before it ran into the hole. He brought his hand up to his helmet and yelled, "Shepard! There is a krogan, and five geth that've entered the dig site!"

No one answered, and Nicolas repeated as he aimed for the other two geth that were slowly advancing towards the dig site too. The ground jerked to the side under Nicolas and he tried once more, this time, starting with "What the hell was that?"

Shepard answered, "We've extracted the Doctor, heading for the surface. We'll take care of 'em when we see 'em, Nicolas. The dig site has caused a seismic disturbance so get to the entrance. Joker we need evac! On the double, mister!"

Joker's voice came through the radio, "Aye, aye, commander. ETA two minutes."

Nicolas kneeled to fire at the two remaining geth when the ground shook underneath him again, more violently. He needed to get rid of those two robots and head for the dig site entrance as soon as possible.

Tali held on to an exhausted asari archaeologist when a krogan nearly the size of Wrex walked up to the ruin's entrance, followed by five geth.

"Surrender! Or don't, that would be more fun."

A piece of ceiling landed near Shepard. Holstering her assault rifle, her hands began glowing blue and she hurled the debris at the enemy with her biotics. The krogan rolled away from the impromptu projectile, but a geth behind him wasn't so lucky, exploding into wiring and coolant fluid.

"We don't have time to deal with this idiot, charge!"

Tali ran with Liara towards cover. Leaving the asari behind a pillar, she ran for the next one, firing towards the geth with her shotgun. She looked around to see Garrus and Wrex mowing down the other geth as Kaidan crushed a flanking rocket trooper with his biotics. Soon the floor near the entrance was almost coated in the white coolant fluid, and Tali stood up from cover, wondering where Shepard and the other krogan was.

A scream snapped her attention behind her where the krogan stood, holding up Liara by the neck. Tali raised her shotgun but hesitated, the spread of the buckshot might hit the doctor and do more damage than good. Using one arm, the krogan slammed Liara against the wall and the doctor went limp as blue blood started trickling down the back of her neck. Before the krogan could move, a shotgun blast blew the arm he was using to hold the asari up off. He took a few steps back, holding on to the stump when Shepard emerged from a nearby pillar, running toward the krogan with a hand stretched out. The space around the krogan's head distorted and shifted to blue and in the blink of an eye, it exploded into a cloud of red.

"Garrus grab the doctor, everybody out! Go, go, go!" Shepard shouted as Garrus scooped up the wounded asari and they all ran for the dig site's entrance. The ground shook more and more until it was hard to run in a straight line and the smell of sulphur erupted from the depths.

Nicolas ran up the ramp to the dig site and looked up to see the Normandy approaching from the skies. It spun around when it was close, so that the rear ramp opened in front of the dig site entrance. Hopping up on the Normandy, he turned around to see Shepard and company emerge from the depths of Therum and sprint up to the ramp too.

The first thing that Nicolas noticed was the bleeding asari in Garrus' arms. He started walking towards the strike team but was held back by Tali as Doctor Chakwas ran up to check on Liara before having Garrus take her to the service elevator.

"I-i-is she gonna be alright?" Nicolas stuttered.

Tali shrugged, "I think so, Nicolas. She didn't look too bad, calm down!"

Shepard walked up to the two, "Chakwas said she was going to be O.K. from what she could see. Calm down, alright?"

"But- but- but the krogan! I should've taken it out and I had enough ti-"

"Baker! Liara is going to be alright. I don't need you acting up, you did alright, so take a walk and breathe deep because Liara isn't going to get any better with you feeling sorry for yourself."

"But I told you I could handle it!"

"And you did everything you could. I didn't expect more or less. Now get yourself cleaned up for debriefing. You too, Tali." With this, Shepard left for the elevator, and the cargo bay was left in silence as the ramps finished closing.

Garrus walked up to the pair and he eyed Nicolas. The human stood still, hands shaking and head bowed down, looking at the floor.

"Shepard's right, you know," Nicolas looked up as the turian spoke, "You did more than what we expected, and you won't get anywhere if you just sulk about it. Suck it up and keep training."

Nicolas nodded and muttered, "Thanks," before he began unclasping his armour, leaving the plates in a neat pile. Garrus did the same and Tali stood to the side, leaning on the Mako. She took a ration tube out from a pouch on her suit and inserted it into her faceplate.

Garrus brushed his hands on his suit's second layer and turned around to look at the Mako in horror, "It's all red! The Normandy's better have a hose for this, or the dust will ruin the paint!"

Tali laughed and started walking towards the Eezo core. Garrus pointed his hands at where she had leaned on and gasped, "And look! Now it has a quarian butt-mark on it!"

Nicolas couldn't help but smile at Garrus' exasperation and helped him look for some way to clean the Mako as the Normandy sped away from Therum.

* * *

 **So, number 8, done!**

 **I hope I did good with the action-y parts :D If anyone has opinions, criticism, anything, PM or review! I'm always happy to get feedback!**

 **I gotta thank Blaze1992, since the Normandy's airstrike was his idea, and he pointed out that it really seemed weird that a state of the art frigate wouldn't be able to provide air support!**

 **Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll start working on the next one now-ish!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter number 9!**

 **All characters, settings and themes belong to bioware, no copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Nicolas had always thought cleaning a weapon would be sporadic at best, but Garrus and Ashley were quick to pull him aside after dinner and walked him to the weapons bench in the cargo bay where his gun and his rifle were waiting, as well as Ashley's and Garrus'. Sending him his weapon's manuals, they supervised the maintenance while they did their own. Both his tutors liked to maintain silence during their ritual of sorts, so they flinched when Nicolas broke the silence,

"So, what do you think of Liara?" he turned to Ashley as he laid down a segment of collapsible barrel on the table and picked up another piece without looking.

"She's alright, I guess? I can't get over the fact that she speaks like a children's cartoon." Ashley shrugged as she slid a spring into the kinetic absorbers that held the Eezo in place.

"Ha. My translator did kind of the same thing." Garrus chuckled as his omnitool corrected bullet-flight correction algorithms.

"I was just thinking the Benezia thing must be shitty for her." Nicolas turned to Garrus, which had by now almost finished assembling his own rifle.

"Spirits, yes. I don't even want to think about having a traitor in the family." Garrus nodded as he inspected the finished rifle.

Ashley dropped the barrel in her hands, making a loud clanging noise as it bounced on the metallic surface. Nicolas and Garrus jumped, startled and stared at the barrel on the weapons bench, then at Ashley.

"You ok, there, Ash?" Nicolas picked up the eezo core and pluged it into the chassis.

"What? Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." Ashley resumed assembling the assault rifle.

Garrus clicked his mandibles in satisfaction as he finished inspecting his rifle and collapsed it into the portable form before walking over to his locker and storing it, "Well, I'll go check on Liara, it might be weird for her getting to know the Normandy's crew."

"Good idea, Big Bird, see you." Nicolas nodded at Garrus as he left for the cargo bay elevator, and when he had left the deck, Ashley let out a big sigh.

"Seriously, Ashley, are you alright?"

The gunnery sergeant took a deep breath before she answered, "You know I don't really trust aliens, right?"

"Yeah, I could kind of tell by how you look at them."

"I have a reason for that, Nicolas. Granted it's not a very good one but I really can't help it."

"I'm not judging, Ashley. As long as you acknowledge that they are good people, then there's really not much more anyone can ask of you. What's your reason anyway?"

Ashley shrugged, "I'd rather not talk about it just yet, if that's OK. I just had to get it out of my chest. And thanks."

"Don't mention it."

Once Nicolas was finished, they walked together to the mess hall for a late night snack and talked about the mission. It seemed like Ashley was just as amazed by the events as Nicolas. Working alongside a spectre was completely unheard of for humans, and asari Matriarchs were important figures. The mission they were on was of a kind few people would ever take part in.

"I mean geth, rogue spectres, millennium-old asari, it's so unreal."

"Don't forget doomsday machines that might destroy us all." Ashley looked at the floor.

Nicolas eyed the gunnery chief as he chewed on a protein bar, "Way to be the debby downer, chief. Anyway, don't you think these reapers could be a hoax made by Saren?"

"What, you think it's all fake?" Ashley seemed incredulous.

"Well, I've never seen the reaper thing, and it actually could be that Saren is just using it as a ploy to have the geth follow him."

"I think you're way too much into conspiracy theories, Nicolas. Anyway, I saw it myself"

"Hmmm. Well, fake or not, it helps a lot to have people who know their stuff around, like you."

Ashley chuckled and nudged him with her elbow, "I'm supposed to say you're welcome or something?"

Nicolas laughed, "Yeah that was a thank you."

…

Hal's voice woke Nicolas up while he was in the sleeping pod, "The commander's called the ground team for a briefing, a geth outpost have been spotted in the Skyllian Verge."

After a quick shower and an almost obsessed amount of touching on his bald patch, Nicolas jogged up to the comm. room in the CIC to find half the team waiting on the chairs that lined the walls. Liara came in rubbing her eyes, followed by Wrex that looked equally groggy. Finally Shepard entered and activated the vid screen in the far back, showing a blue planetoid.

"The alliance has given us intel regarding Solcrum, a moon in the Grissom system. Turns out the geth have taken over a research facility and are probably coordinating the construction of geth facilities within the system. Our job will be to land and take 'em out on foot."

Kaidan raised his hand, "Commander, wouldn't it just be easier to use the Normandy's turret and wipe them out?"

Garrus also raised his hand, "Or what about the Mako? It's got good firepower and, yeah, I don't think we'd need any more reasons to use it."

Shepard seemed prepared for these questions, as she answered immediately, "Since it's a research facility, there is a lot of expensive equipment inside which we would hate to damage, ruling out the orbital strike," Kaidan nodded as Shepard turned to Garrus, "regarding the Mako, Grissom is a blue giant, and it's blasting the surface with too much heat and radiation to make using the Mako's weaponry viable. Luckily, we have heavy firepower in the armoury that is made to withstand the conditions, which is why I'm bringing you, Nicolas and Wrex along for the initial strike. Once the outside of the facility has been cleared, I'll be taking Ashley, Tali and Kaidan. Liara, you're sitting this one out, I feel you need a bit more time to recover from Therum."

Liara nodded, "Yes, commander."

Wrex's voice filled the following silence, "What is this heavy firepower we'll be using?"

Shepard smiled mischievously, "You're gonna like this, Wrex."

…

The Normandy flew a couple of kilometres over Solcrum's surface, releasing the Mako into the almost non-existent atmosphere. Nicolas held on to the cabin's roof as his stomach felt like it had stayed on the Normandy while Shepard laughed with glee at the pilot's seat. When the car touched down on the surface, the suspension slid all the way to its limit and a hard clank resounded inside the cabin as everyone except Nicolas banged their heads on any hard surfaces near them.

Shepard turned around to glare at Garrus, "What the hell did you do to the suspension?"

Garrus turned so pale, you could see it through his helmet visor, "I- I- I- th- the calibrations-"

Nicolas poked his head around Garrus to look at the commander, "Commander, you have to consider that Wrex probably weighs around a ton, that's gotta be a surprise for anyone."

The crew of three looked at the krogan that sat in front of Nicolas. Wrex huffed and crossed his arms, "Who gave the pyjak permission to speak?"

"Take that into consideration next time, Vakarian." Shepard shook her head smiling as she hit the gas and the Mako sped towards high ground near the geth outpost.

Garrus straightened against the back of his seat, "Yes, ma'am!"

As the mako reached a peak on a mountain near the outpost, Nicolas and Garrus got off and dropped on the floor, covering themselves with insulating blankets as they got into sniping positions and the Mako sped away with Shepard and Wrex on board.

"Sure is hot out here." Nicolas tried to wipe his brow, but his gloved hand clacked against his visor so he expanded his rifle to scout the outpost instead.

"Yeah but these blankets will keep us alive, just try to move as little as possible." Garrus got his rifle out too, and they awaited for the commander to get into position.

On a peak opposite Garrus and Nicolas, the Mako had skidded to a halt on sodium and calcium carbonate dust. Shepard and Wrex jumped off the vehicle and pulled out a long structure the shape of a tuning fork. Propping it on a tripod, Shepard extended a power cable from the Mako to the two meter long gun and Wrex loaded a one kilogram iron rod onto it.

"Should've told me you had a railgun on the Normandy, Shepard. I would've been a lot happier to join." Wrex chuckled as he aimed the gun towards a geth armature that was patrolling the perimeter of the facility, its twin on the opposite side.

Shepard shrugged, "Woulda, shoulda, coulda. I wanted it to be a surprise."

"Those _armatures_ are gonna get a surprise, alright." Wrex grumbled as he aimed down the sights.

The ground around the railgun started to vibrate as the electromagnets activated, making iron particles in the dust react to the magnetic field.

Nicolas and Garrus' headsets crackled to life as Shepard's voice came over the radio, "We're in position, are you ready to engage the snipers?"

Garrus brought a hand up to his helmet, "Affirmative, Shepard. Just keep those armatures off our fringes. Fire when ready."

Nicolas looked up from his scope momentarily towards the small speck on the other side of the valley that was the Mako, Shepard and Wrex. Just as he was about to look through the scope again, a soundless superheated rod of iron shot at a fraction of the speed of light towards one of the patrolling armatures, making a straight line of white light and blowing the armature to scrap. Looking back towards the facility, he shot a bullet through the head of a geth rocket trooper as Garrus did the same with another geth platform.

A minute later, Shepard raised her hand to her helmet, "All geth forces eliminated, guys. Stand by as we go get you."

"Ok, Shepard, we'll wait right here. Damn I just wanna stretch, my back's killing me." Nicolas collapsed his rifle and attached it to his back.

"Deactivate your shield if you're going to take the blanket off. If the sun flares or anything, it'll definitely fry them."

"Good call." Nicolas opened his omnitool to deactivate the shield generator from underneath the blanket and stood up, stretching his arms towards the stars and he looked around. Solcrum looked like a blue dessert. Sand and deep blue rocks stretching as far as the eye could see in every direction, and above them, the bright blue of Grissom was like a spotlight amidst the pitch black of the moon's sky.

Looking back down towards the outpost, he noticed a faint red glow coming from his chest and a split second later he was hit by a tungsten round which shattered his chest plate and send him flying two meters back, his blanket following him, tangled on his foot.

Garrus looked behind him as Nicolas landed and layed on his stomach, pulling his blanket on. Garrus raised his hand to his helmet, "Nicolas, are you alright?" receiving a grunt and a quick yes from the human, he spoke again, "Shepard, we have cloaked snipers on the facility's rooftop, Just keep driving. Nicolas and I've got this."

Nicolas crawled to Garrus' side as they both retrieved their rifles and searched the rooftop in the distance for any light distortions the geth's cloaking devices might cause.

"Yeah, deactivating the shield was a genius idea, Big Bird. God, I think I broke a rib." Nicolas groaned as he swept over the roof, looking for any target.

"Nobody forced you to stand up, Nicolas, quit whining." Garrus shot a round towards the facility and white coolant fluid splattered on the light blue roof as a geth sniper fizzled into existence, missing a head.

"Let me complain in peace, I just got shot." Nicolas fired and another geth sniper crumpled to the floor.

"This could've all been avoided if you'd just stayed down," Garrus took another shot and a third sniper appeared missing its head, "I think that's all of them. Why don't you stand up to make sure?"

"Ladies, quit your bickering. Joker, what do your scanners say?" Shepard spoke over the radio as Wrex laughed in the background. A few seconds of silence passed before Joker answered from the Normandy.

"No hostiles detected, commander. Now would be a good time for extraction."

Nicolas pulled the blanket towards his front and covered the place where the chest plate once was as he and Garrus piled into the Mako, which had just arrived.

Looking around the inside of the vehicle, Nicolas asked, "Hey where'd the railgun go?"

Wrex shook his head and looked at the floor, disappointment oozing from his voice, "It melted after the second shot. Damn sun had a micro-flare and the magnets didn't like it."

Garrus shot an _I told you so_ look at Nicolas and they waited for the Normandy to come around for extraction. Aboard the frigate, they jumped off the Mako and Tali, Kaidan and Ashley piled in. Looking over his shoulder, Nicolas spotted Shepard smiling on her seat at the Mako's front before she sealed the hatch and revved the engine, waiting for the cargo bay to open and let the vehicle out.

Once the Mako had left and the cargo bay had been pressurized, Garrus, Nicolas and Wrex began cleaning their weapons. A vidscreen popped up in front of the weapons bench which showed the video feed from Shepard's helmet and Joker spoke over the intercom, "Thought you guys might wanna watch the strike team in action."

Shepard swiped her omnitool over a disk grenade she had pulled from her belt and a holo-display on the disk read BREACH in blue letters. Placing the grenade underneath the red 'locked' display on the facilities main entrance, she walked to the side of the door and leaned against the wall, rifle in hand and the rest of the strike team behind her. Raising an open hand, she lowered her fingers one by one and blew the door open at 'zero'. Running inside, she began laying suppressing fire as she spotted cover and ran for it, Tali, Ashley and Kaidan close behind.

"The research equipment is in the basement, all weapons allowed on this floor as long as it isn't explosive," Shepard reminded her squad as geth screeching echoed in the hall beyond the console desk they were huddled behind. Nodding, Kaidan popped out of cover and biotically lifted three enemies half way down the hall, blocking the line of fire for the rocket troopers at the very end. Ashley picked them off with a little help from Tali as Shepard revised the facility's blueprints before walking out of cover and raising a barrier in front of Kaidan just in time to block a rocket that was flying towards him.

Pointing to a room at their side, she shouted for them to go in and they ran along the walls of the new room towards the rocket troopers. Close quarters combat was their best option. As Shepard neared the door which would lead to the geth troopers, she silently instructed Ashley and Tali to wait at a door behind them, so as to engage the enemy at two different angles. With Kaidan behind her, she told him what to do next with hand signals the crew up on the Normandy didn't understand.

Once the strike team was in position, Kaidan emerged into the hallway as he used his biotics to freeze the geth in place at the same time Tali and Ashley shot down the hall at the frozen synthetic that was furthest form Shepard and Kaidan. As Kaidan concentrated on keeping the other two geth immobile, Shepard grabbed the rifle off the first and mowed down both robots while Nicolas and Garrus cheered from aboard the Normandy.

"Alright," Shepard crouched beside the dead geth and the rest of the squad stood beside her as she opened a map on her omnitool, "This is the lower level of the facility. We should be standing right here," she pointed at a part of the map and continued, "these are fragile points and here are the stairs which will lead us to the lower level, so the geth should be ready to focus firepower on this section."

Garrus and Nicolas resumed cleaning their guns and paid little attention to what the squad was doing, they could look when the action started.

A few minutes later they looked back to see Shepard and Tali halfway down the hall, Ashley and Kaidan at the end, near the stairs. The video feed showing Shepard's first person view showed her holding her rifle on her right hand, and her left came up counting down from three.

Shepard reached one and Tali activated her omnitool, detonating Thermite cord around them, melting the floor underneath herself and Shepard. The floor gave way evenly, and the two fell into the lower level behind a large computer processing unit. The geth that were standing ready at the stairs turned and headed for the intruders, and as Tali and Shepard peaked out of cover to fire at the geth, Kaidan and Ashley descended, guns blazing. Having been caught from two directions, the strike team made short work of the remaining geth forces.

Up in the Normandy, Nicolas and Garrus stood with their mouths agape staring at the vidscreen.

Wrex guffawed when he saw their faces, "They didn't make her a Spectre for nothing! The human sure knows how to make a good show."

"Spirits, you can say that again. It looked like it was pulled from a Blasto movie."

"It probably was, Garrus. It probably was."

…

It was an hour before the beginning of the next day shift. Nicolas stood at the mess hall's kitchen counter, brewing himself some coffee. The captain's cabin door swooshed open and a very groggy commander walked towards Nicolas.

"It's five in the morning, Nicolas," she yawned, "What are you doing up so early?"

"I could say the same to you, commander."

"I asked first, and call me Jane. Way too early in the morning for formalities."

"If you must know, I'm making coffee. I've got my own because yours is shit, but I make it early so no one takes mine."

"Smart… and frugal," Shepard yawned again as she looked at the boiler beginning to steam, "Now that I've seen it, you have to give me a cup, though."

Nicolas wasn't about to deny the _commander_ a cup of coffee, so he chuckled and poured out two cups, handing one over to Jane, who was still fighting to keep her eyelids open. Holding the cup close to her lips, she was about to take a sip when Nicolas warned, "Careful. It's hot."

With a snort, Shepard took short sips from the cup, humming with delight at the taste of the coffee.

Nicolas leaned on the kitchen counter and looked at Jane, "So what happens from here on out?"

"Right now we have a lot on our plate, actually," Shepard's eyelids opened more with each word as wakefulness caught up with her, "We have to go to Noveria, where Matriarch Benezia was last seen, and to a colony in Feros, where a small scale geth invasion is going on. We're actually headed there now." Shepard frowned as she said that last bit, and sipped on her coffee in silence.

"Are you worried we might not get there in time?" Nicolas stopped drinking his own to gauge Shepard's reaction. Her brow furrowed a bit more for a split second and then returned to a slightly worried position.

"We're late as it is. The distress call was first sent when we went to get Liara, but I don't know why I felt I needed to go get her first. Good bit of help she's been, everything about the reapers is completely new to her."

"She'll probably be of use when we go get Benezia, maybe the matriarch still has some love for her daughter."

"Maybe… Doesn't take away the fact that civilians are in danger as we speak." Shepard bit her lower lip as she frowned, setting the coffee on the counter.

"Maybe you should stop beating yourself up, Jane," Nicolas spoke softly so as to not sound scolding. Jane looked at him and he continued, "Maybe we could've gone to Feros immediately, but we didn't, and now we're going anyway. I think it's better to think 100% about the civilians we're going to save than the ones we didn't."

Shepard smiled for a moment before her face changed to a more saddened one, "Easier said than done, Nicolas."

"Well I've been in the whole saving the galaxy business for like a week, and we've done quite a lot," Shepard chuckled at that and resumed drinking her coffee. Nicolas smiled and spoke again, "So right now I'm thinking anything that can be said, can be done."

"Amen to that, Nicolas. Thanks."

Nicolas raised his cup and drank the last of his coffee before turning around to get the brewer and took it to the dish washer. Shepard caught sight of his bald patch and leaned over to poke it, making Nicolas duck his head in surprise, "Your finger's super cold!"

Jane laughed, "I think we'd better get you shaved or something, that bald patch really sticks out."

"I'll ask Chakwas for her hair cut machine thing and make something decent."

"I don't think you'd be able to cut your hair alone _and_ make something 'decent'," Shepard smiled as she made quotation marks with her fingers.

Nicolas tilted his head to the side, "What, you wanna help?"

"It's still a day to Feros, so there's time, if you trust me with your precious hair."

Nicolas touched the bald patch on the back of his head, considering the offer and then shrugged, "Ah, what the hell. If it turns out you fuck it up, then I'll just shave."

* * *

 **So, number 9, done!**

 **I haven't been able to play much ME, so I haven't been to the thorian yet and I want to revise it before writing down, in case I mess it up! Again, if anyone has opinions, criticism, anything, PM or review! I'm always happy to get feedback!**

 **Once more, I have to thank Blaze1992 for the idea of breaching charges and grenades with switchable types! I'd definitely say it made the geth outpost more fun to write!**

 **So yeah, I hope you liked this under-canonical chapter, I needed a little break from the story and it gave me more time to flesh out the characters a bit.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter number 10!**

 **All characters, settings and themes belong to bioware, no copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Nicolas shut his eyes tight trying to ignore the sensation of the hair clippers on the sides of his head, then on top. After a couple of minutes, the buzzing stopped and he opened his eyes to see Jane eyeing his hair critically.

"So am I going to need a full head shaving?"

"Short hair is always alright, quit whining!" Shepard laughed as she swiped some hair off Nicolas' nose, "Now go get a shower, or you'll leave the whole Normandy full of hair. I'll take care of the mess here."

…

As Nicolas was putting the off-duty fatigues on, Garrus came into the bathroom and stared with wide eyes at the human's head, "Doesn't it hurt when you cut it off?"

Nodding gravely, Nicolas spoke in a monotone voice, "Just like losing my legs," he smiled and laughed, "Hair's dead, Garrus! I don't feel it unless it's pulled on. I guess not many species cut their hair if they have any."

Garrus released magnetic strips on his shirt, letting it hang loose before he pulled it over his head, careful not to let it tangle on his fringe, "I heard Batarians are fuzzy."

"Ugh. You know I hate Batarians… ugh… _fuzzy_ ," Nicolas finished buttoning up his shirt and walked towards the bathroom's exit, boots hanging on his hand as the robotic feet clicked faintly on the floor, new rubber padding absorbing the impact.

"You're the biggest xenophobe I've seen, Nicolas."

"It's not just their appearance. A culture that condones slavery and trafficking of sentient lives rubs me the wrong way. Go kiss one if you like them so much!"

As the door to the bathroom whooshed closed, Garrus yelled, "Turians don't kiss, now _that's_ disgusting!"

…

Following breakfast the next day, Nicolas was checking the tungsten cubes in his rifle and handgun, making sure there was still a lot of material left for shooting. Geth presence was sure to be nearly overwhelming, so the whole ground team had done a weapons check. Kaidan had woken up with a terrible migraine that day and the meds were doing little to help, so he was sitting the mission out. Tali was staying as well, she needed to help Engineer Adams with various maintenance tasks around the Eezo core. Thermal fluctuations from the Normandy's stealth systems had overstressed the support structures around the Eezo pellet, and the Normandy would have to shut down the core once they'd docked.

Joker had minimal communication with the colony's control tower to avoid tipping off the geth and soon they were docked on Zhu's Hope magnetic clamps. Shepard walked off the Normandy, flanked by Nicolas and Liara, then Garrus and Ashley, with Wrex bringing up the rear. A lone colonist stood at the end of their dock. He was staring at the floor, his naturally dark skin seemed pale, as if he were sick or about to pass out. When the group was near him, he looked up and spoke with a slightly broken voice, "We saw your ship. Fai Dan wants to speak to you immediately."

Shepard tilted her head to the side, frowning, "Who's Fai Dan?"

The colonist deadpanned, almost as if he was concentrating on a response before speaking again," He's our leader. He needs your help to prepare for the geth. They're making another push. Please, up the stairs past the freighter."

The glint of something metallic made Shepard look over the colonist's shoulder, then the whole squad saw the bright flash of a rocket headed for them from behind the man.

"Take cover!" Shepard shouted as she spun around and dove for a crate, taking Nicolas with her, holding him by his armour's collar.

The rocket hit the colonist's back directly and was immediately vaporized by the blast which toppled the whole squad over, even though they were behind cover.

"Multiple threats, at least one rocket trooper and three with assault rifles!"

"Stay in cover! I want Wrex and Ashley laying down suppressive fire!"

"On it, Skipper!"

"Liara, raise barriers to keep our cover intact! Garrus, try to head back and take 'em from a distance! Take Nicolas with you!"

"Yes ma'am! Wait, where the hell is Nicolas?"

Nicolas lay prone on the ground, staring around the corner of the crate to where the colonist used to be, the ground was scorched black but not even a thread of his clothing was left. _He'd been there a moment ago, where was he now?_ The shouting from the team and the gunfire blended together into incomprehensible white noise in his head until a hand shook him by the back collar of his armour. A flanged shout called his name, again and again but his mind wouldn't register it, until,

"NICOLAS BAKER! We have to move!" Garrus had crouched low to be near Nicolas' ear and the human's eyes focused as Garrus pulled him up to a crouch effortlessly.

Sticking to the safety wall of the docking bays, Nicolas and Garrus scampered away from the entrance where the geth were coming form. Behind a crate, Garrus grabbed Nicolas' shoulder hard and shook.

"I need you here, human! There are geth pouring in from the stairwell down there and the squad needs us to take care of them! If we don't, more people will die so I _need_ you to focus!" Garrus smacked him on the back of the head and Nicolas took a deep breath before unholstering his rifle and nodding. They took aim at a couple of troopers that ran in from the far side of the docking bay and shot them down as the rest of the team gunned the first geth down. When things were quiet again, Garrus got up and walked towards the rest of the squad, leaving Nicolas to rest and breathe behind the crate. The human leaned over the safety wall and vomited into the emptiness that stretched down endlessly before reaching the clouds that covered the planet's surface. Then he slumped back down against the crate as Shepard walked over to him, the team walking slowly, guns raised towards the colony they'd come to help.

"First person you see die?" Shepard stood in front of Nicolas, his back resting against the crate, legs stretched out and rifle laying collapsed at his side.

"First time I see it up close," Nicolas gasped, "He was here with us a moment ago, and he wasn't a second later." Nicolas looked pale and his hands shook as he looked up to Jane, which offered a hand to help him up.

"This is what I thought about when I said civilians were in danger. When there's war, things don't get prettier than this."

Nicolas took her forearm and stood up, grabbing his rifle on the way, "Then let's kill these robot sons of bitches, commander," he sounded weaker than he wanted to, but Shepard patted his shoulder, making a plastic tapping sound, a worried smile on her face.

They caught on with the rest of the squad. Wrex and Ashley were taking point, followed by Liara and Garrus. Walking down the docks' corridor, they reached the stairwell that would take them up to the colony. The scorched remains of something resembling a human was laid against a corner up a flight of stairs.

"Goddess," Liara gasped as Garrus shook his head. Shepard tapped Nicolas' arm to keep him from looking too much at the corpse. The walls of the staircase were white walls of prothean make, but explosions and gunfire had scorched them, making them seem more grey than anything. Dried blood and coolant fluid mixed on the steps and some of the walls.

A small rasping noise came from a wall ahead of them and Liara raised her arms towards it, glowing blue. A geth platform appeared on the wall, holding on with its hands and feet. It screeched, stuck in position by Liara's biotics as Wrex walked up and casually blew it to pieces with his shotgun. There was another one, but Ashley quickly shot it down when she spotted its aiming laser reflecting on the dust that was floating around.

Nobody was prepared for what they saw after the stairs ended. Shepard's stomach sank when she saw the debris, dust and destruction that was ever-present in Zhu's Hope. It killed her to see people pointing guns in their direction, hands shaking so bad they couldn't hit a watermelon strapped to the barrels. The refugees lowered their weapons immediately to let the ground team pass, walking by metal barriers made from the walls of housing units. Rubble and debris was stacked high to the sides, making a path that lead to the last housing units that weren't yet salvaged for cover or too damaged to be used.

The team looked around as they heard the colonists murmuring to themselves. _The geth arrived from nowhere. Just overnight. So many dead. Where's exogeni? Fai Dan will help us._

A lone colonist was standing beside a living unit, facing the wall and muttered as the squad walked by, _we're all going to die._

Nicolas looked towards Shepard, catching glimpses of her face. She seemed stoic and serious, like all emotion was gone from her being. It with all certainty a defense mechanism, she surely felt guilty for not being able to help the refugees. Shepard's face was a big contrast with Liara anyhow. The young asari walked beside Garrus, her mouth open and eyes watering as she looked at the colonists.

They eventually found Fai Dan, and after taking care of another wave of geth, he told Shepard of the synthetics having built a base within Exogeni headquarters. The colonists lent the squad a mako and they took off towards the next prothean building, riding along a seemingly endless skyway.

"Why would the geth come here, of all places?" Liara asked as the mako bounced on a piece of rubble.

"What do you mean?" Shepard didn't look back from the pilot seat as she asked, fingers tapping on the steering wheel.

"Well. The geth went to Eden Prime for the beacon, right?" the whole squad nodded absentmindedly, "And they surely went to Therum because I'm Benezia's daughter," the squad had now turned to Liara and she looked down to avoid the ten eyes that were staring at her.

Garrus clenched a fist on his lap and nodded, "You might be on to something Liara. Maybe Exogeni has something to do with it."

…

"Who are you? What do you want?" Ethan Jeong, an Exogeni employee, who seemed to be the leader of a small refugee settlement on the way to the company's building, demanded of the arriving strike team.

"Commander Shepard, I'm here to fix your geth problem." Jane had kept a stern face since Zhu's Hope, but there was kindness in her words. The woman to Jeong's side smiled at the commander, but Jeong wasn't going to leave his hostile demeanour.

"The geth are based in the Exogeni headquarters. Remember that building is private property, soldier. Remove the geth threat and nothing else." Jeong sounded authoritative, almost high and mighty. Garrus' mandibles twitched in irritation at the human's tone. Ashley and Nicolas couldn't hide their disapproval either, frowning at the Exogeni representative.

Shortly thereafter, the strike team returned to the mako. As the hatch at the back end sealed shut and the vehicle resumed its ride to the Exogeni building, Ashley sighed, "God, I wanted to punch that guy's lights out so bad."

Murmurs of agreement filled the mako as Garrus added, "He even hid the fact that there are still people alive at Zhu's Hope from the refugees at his camp. I don't know if there's a law against that, but it's just wrong on so many levels."

"At least we don't have to deal with him any longer." Nicolas said. The rest of the trip was silent until they reached the tower.

Going through the Exogeni headquarters, the team ran into an employee who had stayed hidden during the geth invasion. She gave the team clearance to move freely around the building before going into hiding again. Stumbling upon a VI terminal, Shepard used the employee's clearance to go through the VI's databanks.

"All sensors have been disabled by the geth ship. No further updates have been received from Zhu's Hope or subject 37." Looks of confusion were traded among the strike team at the VI's status report.

"Subject 37?" Shepard took a step closer to the hologram, paying close attention.

"Subject 37, otherwise known as the Thorian, is an indigenous organism. It has a cellular structure similar to that of a vegetable, but has shown signs of sentience and continuously releases airborne spores which can infect and eventually take control over sentient organisms. Zhu's hope is a control group for testing the mind control capabilities of the Thorian, and as of the last received report, 85% of Zhu's Hope's inhabitants have been infected."

"No wonder they were acting so weird," Shepard muttered and then brought a hand up to her helmet, "Joker? Joker!" she shook her head, "Damn! The geth ship must be messing with the radio."

"Then let's get rid of it. That Exogeni girl said that the Geth installed power lines inside the facility. If we follow them, we'll reach the ship." Nicolas pointed at the roof, where thick black cables hung from flash forged hooks.

"Just one last question," Shepard looked back at the team and then to the VI's hologram, "Who's in charge of the Thorian study?"

"All decisions about local resource analysis and data acquisition are made by onsite management. Individual employee records are confidential." The monotone voice made Shepard's shoulders slump down in a sigh.

Hal's voice came to life within Nicolas' ear, "Confidential for you organics, it meant. I'll see if I can find anything."

…

"Well, there's no way we're _prying_ these claws out." Wrex dusted his hands as he returned defeated from wrestling against one of the landing claws on the geth cruiser.

Nicolas looked at the hole through which the claw had entered the building, it was a ship entrance, its doors built to seal off harsh climate conditions from the outside. Wandering around the hangar they were in, he found a control panel for the door, as Tali meddled with a console near him.

"Shepard, you have to see this!" Tali called out once she had hacked into the system, "Have you heard of Cerberus?"

"Hey Nicolas-" Hal whispered to Nicolas but was interrupted by an audio log that began playing from the console Tali had hacked into.

Jeong's voice filled the room, "Ethan Jeong, status report 129 on Subject 37. The inhabitants of Zhu's Hope have reported headaches and nausea, with more and more cases coming in each day. Despite this outburst of health complaints, there have been no suspicions among the test subjects. Spore sensors five and six have failed again, so I will need replacements to be sent as soon as possible."

Tali spoke again, "It was sent to an address belonging to Cord-Hislop Aerospace. Heard of it Shepard?"

Hal spoke into Nicolas' ear and he repeated, "It's a front company!" the strike team eyed him suspiciously and Nicolas hesitated before resuming, trusting Hal to not mess it up, "Cord-Hislop is a human owned company that produces space shuttles, but it's a money laundering scheme for Cerberus, a human supremacist organization. It's actually been involved in various terrorist attacks against turian and salarian colonies, but that's been kept real quiet to avoid large scale animosity between the council races."

Jane had her mouth slightly open, a bewildered frown on her face. She hesitated before speaking, "And _how_ do you know all this?"

Again, Hal spoke into Nicolas' ear and he repeated, "I went through a merc's omnitool once, a bit before meeting Tali. He had worked for Cerberus in the past, and I thought this was something worth noting, but telling authorities might've been redundant, since they probably already knew," Nicolas shrugged at the end, to make his monologue more credible.

Garrus blinked as Nicolas turned back around to fiddle with the hangar door controls and asked, "So Jeong is overseeing an experiment on humans, funded by a terrorist organization?"

A deafening screeching came from the geth cruiser as the hangar doors clamped shut on the tethering claw, cutting through it like butter. Outside, the ship started sliding down as the other claws gave under the weight and snapped loose from the buiding. The tower itself began swaying slightly from side to side as the immense weight of the ship let go from the structure.

Nicolas whispered as the screeching continued, "Did you find all that in the VI systems?"

Hal spoke again, "I was going to tell you Jeong was in charge of the experiment, but when Tali mentioned Cord-Hislop, I looked through the contact data and notes you saved from Robb's omnitool. He had worked for Cerberus through Cord-Hislop before."

"Good call," Nicolas whispered before turning around when the screeching faded away, "Pretty much, yeah, Garrus. Now that the Geth are gone, maybe we can get rid of the Thorian."

Ashley cracked her knuckles and added, "And we can have a little chat with that Jeong guy."

Joker's voice crackled through the strike team's helmet radios, "Normandy to shore party! The colonists have gone crazy! They're banging against the hull and screaming, maybe you guys'd like to come back so we can leave this place?"

"We're on our way, Joker. Sit tight!" Shepard said as the strike team headed back to the mako, taking the Exogeni employee with them.

…

The mako's radio intercepted an audio feed from the refugee camp where Jeong was located, it sounded like there was a commotion, and the employee jumped off the mako to see what was going on. Exogeni had contacted Jeong after the geth ship was destroyed and wanted the colony purged to restart the tests.

"You don't understand! The experiments at Zhu's Hope are for the good of humanity! Imagine the power our species could have if we understood the Thorian." Jeong was waving his arms almost maniacally, a gun in his hand. The whole strike team had their weapons drawn, pointing at the man who was in charge with experimenting on the colonists at Zhu's Hope, "So what if a couple dozen colonists die? If we could weaponize the Thorian to our advantage, tragedy's like the first contact war would never happen again!"

"This has gone too far, Jeong! We're bringing you into custody." Shepard inched closer to Ethan, gun raised, but the man stepped back, his eyes hinting at an imminent nervous breakdown.

"No. No you can't jeopardize the experiment. I won't let you!" Ethan began raising his pistol at Jane, but a bullet from Garrus' pistol went between his eyes. Jeong's corpse twitched and his gun discharged on the floor before he fell.

A physician from the refugee outpost gave the strike team a grenade modifier, making their grenades concussive and laced with a weak neurotoxin, which would temporarily paralyze any hostile colonists. Piling into the mako, they made their way back to Zhu's Hope, it was a quiet ride aside from Shepard's order to not harm the colonists.

The garage for the mako was coming up. A small grey figure was huddled against a corner outside the door. "What's that right there?" Shepard leaned in close to the viewport, over the steering wheel as Tali surveyed the sensors.

"IR scans say it's alive, or warm, at least." Tali looked up from her display as Shepard slowed down to a halt ten meters away from the door and the humanoid figure that was hunched over. The mako's hatch opened and Nicolas jumped off to check the thing out.

"It looks like a statue, made of mud or something," he extended his pistol and nudged it on the side of the head, earning no response, "I guess it's just a warm mud statue?" Shrugging, he turned around to board the mako once more. A gurgling noise came from behind him and he spun around just in time to watch the figure stand up. Bringing his gun up, he unloaded three times into its chest, green liquid began oozing out form the bullet holes as the gurgling became louder and the figure vomited green acid in Nicolas' direction, "Holy _shit_! What is this thing?"

Garrus poked his head out of the hatch and his eyes widened as he too took out his pistol. Nicolas and the turian fired repeatedly at the figure as it shambled closer towards Nicolas. A well placed shot on the center of the chest finally made the creature explode into a puddle of green bile.

Nicolas gasped as he stared at the puddle at his feet. He brought a hand up to his helmet as he walked towards the door controls, the mako following him, "If all the colonists are like that, I don't think the grenades are gonna help them much," He punched the button on the side of the door and it was slowly lifted to reveal the garage.

"Oh, no."

The whole room was populated by at least twenty of the creatures, and at the very end, a few colonists were huddled against a makeshift barrier, assault rifles in their hands. The colonists began firing at the mako immediately as the creatures rose and started shambling towards the vehicle.

"Alright, everyone out except Garrus! Take cover behind the mako as we get rid of the creepers." Shepard commanded through the radio. Garrus moved over to man the turret and began firing high calibre bullets at the creeper hoard, mowing several down with each slug.

Once the creepers had been taken care of, the mako drove towards the colonists, its shield shrugging off the small arms fire while the strike team walked behind the six-wheeled tank.

Liara glowed blue as she raised her arms and held the colonists still while Wrex hurled a grenade at the group. It exploded into a cloud of green gas and when Liara let go, the colonists fell to the ground, unconscious.

The squad might've not been able to shoot at the civillians, but the colonists were by no means trained to use weapons. On top of that, the Thorian's mind control seemed to dumb them down, making their aiming even worse. After every hostile civilian had been knocked out by the grenades, the squad headed for the hidden entrance to the Thorian's lair. They found the stairs leading down with Fai Dan blocking the way, a gun in his hand. Tears were streaming down his face as he shouted with a broken voice, "It wants me to stop you… So many hurt… So many dead… It's caused too much suffering."

"Fai Dan, put down your gun. Everything will be alright." Shepard inched closer, her gun held towards the air. She was almost close enough to disarm him when he put his weapon against his neck.

"It wants me… to stop you… I won't let it, I won' LET I-" the gun banged and Fai Dan crumpled to the floor missing half his face. Shepard stood still, her hands held out to where Fai Dan once stood.

She started turning around slowly, and even Wrex's eyes widened to see Shepard's face covered in blood that wasn't hers.

Jane Shepard spoke in a calm, deep tone that sent chills running down Nicolas' spine, "Let's kill this Thorian thing."

* * *

 **I remember the first time I played through ME, I didn't really like the Feros mission, but this time around, I realized it was super dark and bleak. Needless to say, it was a lot more interesting to play through it again.**

 **As always, If you have feedback, opinions, suggestions, criticisms or what have you, PM or review the story!**

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Up next, the Thorian! TUN TUN TUUUUUUN!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter number 11!**

 **All characters, settings and themes belong to bioware, no copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

The stairs at the heart of Zhu's Hope descended into darkness. Nicolas felt weak gusts of moist, warm air coming from the depths, carrying with it a smell of petrichor and rotting vegetables. The squad's boots clacked on the stone steps and they echoed all around them as they vanished from the colony, Wrex's tall figure bringing up the rear. Flashlights on the squad's guns lit up to show the way down and soon they reached a corner at the end of the stairs. Shepard pressed herself on the corner that led to the corridor when she heard a gurgling groan on the other side. When the rest of her squad was in position, she rolled out of cover to find an empty corridor, stretching twenty meters down before making another turn. The smell was stronger than before, and the smell of decay made her stomach weak.

"It can't be far now." Garrus had switched to his pistol to bring a free hand up to his nose, "It smells _awful._ "

Nobody was willing to speak and subsequently breathe in more of the horrid smell, so they walked on. The groans became louder and louder and Jane wondered if it was all in her head until Nicolas held her shoulder on the next corner, his face wary of what may lay beyond.

Shepard popped out of cover again to see another twenty meter long corridor, stretching into darkness before making another turn. The team followed her lead to the corner. The gurgling sounds were nearer now, no doubt it was coming from around the corner. Tali and Wrex came up behind Nicolas and Jane, shotguns in hand. They jumped out and took aim at empty air, the sounds of creepers fading away to nothingness the instant they moved around the corner.

"This… this can't be," Tali let her shotgun hang from her hand, her other coming up to her visor and resting where her forehead would be, "My head hurts."

Wrex grumbled and looked at the ground before looking up again, wide eyed, "It's the thorian's spores! It's making us hear that noise. We have to navigate some other way."

"Well, we don't have any map data on this place, Wrex." Shepard holstered her rifle and looked at the krogan, illuminated by the reflection of flashlights shining the walls.

"If you're in a maze, the easiest way to find the exit is hugging a wall and walking along it." Nicolas had a hand on his chin and then pressed up against the right wall before starting to walk down the corridor.

"The whelp's not so useless after all." Wrex murmured before following Nicolas' lead.

The pitch black of the walls began lighting up to their original dull grey with each passing step, and the corner lead to a flight of stairs that went down to a lit corridor. The squad descended anxiously to find this last corridor ended at an opening. The smell reached a peak before it too began fading away as the team approached the end.

…

"Oh God, is it throwing up?" Ashley had been pointing her rifle at the giant writhing plant before lowering her gun to wrap an arm around her stomach. The rest of the squad tried their best to maintain composure, except Nicolas, who snuck back towards the corridor to wretch as a green asari emerged from the plant.

"Invaders! Your every step is a transgression! A thousand feelers appraise you as meat, good only to dig and decompose. I speak for the old growth, as I did for Saren. He sought information of the Old Ones and trades were made, but soon Cold Ones began killing the flesh that would tend the next cycle," the asari spoke loudly, as if before a big audience. Nicolas returned to the squad and tapped Garrus' arm to catch his attention. When the turian looked at him, Nicolas tilted his head towards the asari and they both shrugged.

"Give me what you gave Saren and I'll bring him to justice myself." Shepard walked a couple of steps up to the asari, holstering her assault rifle as a sign of peace.

"The Old growth listens no more to the lies of the ones that scurry," the green asari began glowing blue with biotics as she cast a barrier around herself and drew a gun from her hip, "Your lives are short, but they have gone on too long!"

A screeching noise came from corridors to the squad's sides as they dispersed to avoid the asari's gunfire. Creepers emerged from the corridors soon afterwards, running at the strike team, acid vomit oozing from their mouths. The vast hall in which the Thorian lived was filled with the deafening roar of assault rifle fire and shotgun blasts as creepers began exploding into puddles of green goo and bile.

"Nicolas, the Thorian is hanging on vines that are attached to the hall's walls," Hal's voice came through Nicolas' translator as he shot at the asari from cover while Wrex stood behind him, blasting away creepers that came too close to them.

"So if we destroy them, the Thorian will fall down to… how far down does that hole go?" Nicolas whispered to himself before bringing a hand up to his helmet, "Hey guys, I think that the best plan of action would be to cut down the vines that thing is using to hold itself up."

Wrex kicked a creeper away before blasting is to pieces and began walking towards the nearest corridor, "Good call, whelp. I'll push into the corridor, you keep the asari distracted."

The strike team began walking towards the side corridors, mowing down the creepers to find the thick vines attached to the walls of the hall. Nicolas fired on the asari, who'd stopped shooting at him to focus on the rest of the squad. She exploded much like the creepers and Nicolas lowered his gun to catch his breath before he would go catch up with the rest.

He eyed the Thorian when suddenly an arm snaked around his neck and a deathly moan filled his helmet. He struggled to avoid getting choked as he brought his gun up to the head pressing against his shoulder.

Hal's voice shouted into his translator but was interrupted by Nicolas' gun firing, "Nicolas, wait! Don't shoo-"

 _Bang!_

The body fell limp behind him as he checked his gun to find it covered in red liquid. He spun around and felt his stomach turn upside down. A colonist lay on the floor, three more walking down the corridor the squad came in through, clawing at their own faces. Nicolas' hand shook as he primed a gas grenade and lobbed it at the opening. The concussive blast shook his insides and the gas spread to the colonists, making them fall backwards to the ground. Hal activated his helmet radio as Nicolas spoke, trying to keep his food in his stomach, "Shepard, the civilians are waking up, and they're coming down the hall. I- I shot one down by accident."

Two vines snapped and the Thorian squealed before Shepard's voice crackled through the helmet radio, "Accident? Nevermind, later. Nicolas, I need you to keep them out of the fight. If you need more grenades, let me know and I'll have someone take them to you."

Garrus retreated from a vomiting creeper. The acid would certainly do a number on his armour, and he didn't have the time or funds to be making repairs when it was avoidable. As he stepped back and his handgun vented, the krogan, Wrex was his name, sprinted up to the creeper holding his shotgun by the barrel. _What the hell is he doing?_ His mandibles twitched and his eyes widened in amazement as the hulking krogan swatted the creeper across the face, sending the head flying as it decomposed quickly. With a bellowing roar, Wrex kicked the rest of the body backwards into two more creepers, making them stumble to the ground and sprayed them with a couple of wide-spread shotgun rounds.

 _Savages._ Despite his amazement, the reason for the genophage couldn't have been clearer, the krogan were a race too dangerous for the technology they had in the palm of their hands, even if they didn't even need it to destroy any living being in the galaxy. He looked down and across from the platform he stood at and spotted the human rookie. Garrus' optical visor zoomed in on Nicolas to see half his face covered in… blood? _Oh right, the civilian._ He watched as Nicolas lobbed a couple of grenades back the way the strike team had come until he spotted an exact replica of the green asari emerging from the Thorian's 'mouth'. He unfolded his rifle and pressed a quick command on his omnitool, tweaking the metal loading mechanism so a bigger slug would be shaved from the ammo block and took aim.

A deafening roar bubbled up from nothingness and blackness faded into grey. Green hands touched the rough grey, _concrete._ The roar became clearer now, defined and almost rhythmic, _gunfire_. The green asari looked up from her hands to see a human shaking, back towards her, throwing glowing disks at a corridor of darkness in the distance. The human was covered in red, _enemy._ Hate filled her being and it mixed into the plethora of sensations that were all new to her. An electric feeling crawled down her neck, to her shoulders and then towards her hands as her limbs began to glow blue. The power she felt was intoxicating and the only thing she could think of was how much she wanted to kill the being in front of her for intruding in her creator's lair. She brought a hand back and prepared to unleash her fury when everything was interrupted by blackness. All the sounds, the prickly feeling in her neck, the hate, the air in her lungs, the concrete under her feet, gone, as a blob of tungsten entered her skull from one side and exited through the other.

Shepard fired her assault rifle to the point of overheating at the last vine holding the Thorian up and dropped it. She passed her omnitool over her last grenade, switching to high-explosives mode as Liara stood behind her, using her biotics to push the Creepers away. Jane flung the grenade and it stuck to the hole-riddled vine. She turned away so the blast wouldn't blind her and the concussive shockwave shook her insides as the last vine snapped and cracked like a whip. With a shrill screech, the Thorian fell down the shaft it held itself over. The creepers collapsed to the floor and their skin began bubbling and decaying into green goo.

The strike team regrouped and walked back to the corridor they came in from to find Nicolas holding an asari much like the clones at gunpoint, a headless civilian at his feet. The right side of his helmet and shoulder was still covered in blood as his arms held his handgun steadily.

"The asari says she wants to talk to you, commander."

…

"Oh, the images and sensations were so vivid… My head is feeling a little woozy. I think I will have to go and rest, commander." Liara had just explained what she saw in Shepard's vision, aboard the Normandy.

"That's all for now, then. Dismissed." The commander looked tired, and she stayed in the Comm. Room to talk to the council as the rest of the ground team dispersed.

Nicolas had a lot to think about, so he went straight down to the mess hall to get a light meal, which he ate slowly, deep in thought. Most of the crew had left for the night shift when Shepard walked to the mess hall. She'd been done talking with the council only recently, and her stomach growled as she walked past Nicolas towards the fridge.

"The council sure held you up for a while." Nicolas spoke with his mouth half-full as the commander withdrew a cold ration from the fridge and put it into the heating unit.

"Yeah, they were pissed the Thorian's dead and didn't like that I let the asari live. Seems like I just can't catch a break! They're always angry about everything I do," she walked up to the table and sat opposite Nicolas, "How're you holding up?"

Nicolas looked down at his second 'salad'. The hydroponic spinach was covered in paste that tasted like tuna. Unappetizing to the eyes, delicious to the tongue. Memories of the dead civilian came back to take his appetite away anyway.

"I don't know, so much stuff happened today. I don't know if I'm fine with the civilian that got blown up when we arrived or all the other stuff makes it seem like less of a thing," Nicolas moved the spinach around with his fork, "I don't know if I'm the only one that's disturbed by the fact that half the colonists woke up with a few broken bones and concussions from the grenades-"

"It beats being dead," Shepard spoke after swallowing a big mouthful of re-hydrated potatoes and tuna.

"Yeah, I suppose it does. And the one that I killed… I don't know. He's dead now anyway."

"It was a rookie mistake, but it doesn't make you a murderer, what you did," Shepard looked up from her plate and saw Nicolas' eyes tearing up, "Hey… hey… calm down," She got up from her seat and walked around to him, placing both hands on his shoulders.

"It's just that he wasn't himself, you know?" Nicolas began to sob as he let go of his fork, which clattered on the bowl, "It wasn't his fault he was like that, and I should've looked to make sure!" He sniffled and wiped his tears away.

"I know, I know… Shhhh… It's good that you know it was a mistake, and it's also good that you're beating yourself up for now, so you don't do it again. But don't let this get in the way of the mission. We have to continue," Jane squeezed a bit on one of his shoulders before letting go and standing at his side, "Hey, look at me."

Nicolas sniffed once more before looking up at piercing green eyes, a stern face surrounding them.

"Do not let this cripple you. You are in a war now, and millions of lives are at stake. Even more importantly, however, do _not_ let this make you accustomed to death. Every life is valuable, so from now on, you do your absolute best to keep everyone alive. Is that understood?"

Nicolas breathed deep before answering, careful not to let his voice crack, "Yes, commander."

She smiled, "Good. You know where we're headed now?"

"Ummm…Noveria, right?"

"Exactly!" Shepard patted his shoulder and then winced. She hissed in pain as she walked back to her seat and held her head.

"The asari sex-thing gave you a hangover?" Nicolas scooped up some tuna as he eyed Jane, he'd seen the effects of melding on Caleb when they were younger.

"What do you mean, sex thing?" Shepard kept wincing as she took a gulp of water from a glass on her tray.

Nicolas put his fork down, "I thought Liara might've mentioned it. You know how asari have just one gender?" Shepard nodded, a hand on her forehead, "They reproduce by mind melding and mapping the consciousness of a partner to use on their offspring."

Shepard opened one eye to look at Nicolas who sniffed once more before smiling. She breathed in once before speaking, "You mean I just had alien sex twice today?"

Nicolas nodded, "Pretty much, but I think they can decide whether to make a kid or not. I never really asked. At least the cypher confirmed your suspicions about the reapers."

Shepard groaned and massaged her right temple before scooping up her food and taking a big mouthful. When she was done chewing, she looked up at Nicolas, "It hasn't brought us any closer to the Conduit."

"Hey, we'll get there. Saren can't stay ahead of us forever." Nicolas reassured her as he had his last bite.

"Yeah tell that to Williams and Alenko. They're a bad mission away from giving up." Shepard looked down at her plate.

"They'll come around. I bet Benezia can give us some useful information. Hey Shep," Nicolas set his plate aside as Shepard hummed, waiting for a question, "What's up with Kaidan? He seemed like he was pissed the other day. Garrus said it might've been his migraines, but I'm not sure."

Shepard chuckled, her frown disappearing momentarily, "He thinks the mission is not being handled correctly, too many untrained people with foggy allegiances."

"He doesn't really have any say in the matter of human resources, though, right?" Nicolas stood up and grabbed his empty plate before checking whether Shepard's was empty before taking hers too.

Shepard laughed, "No he doesn't. I shut him up but he's been moody since. Nobody from the crew has given me a reason to doubt them, and I definitely wouldn't be able to do this just with Alenko and Williams."

"Aww, you think I'm useful! Anyways, commander, you better turn in, sleep that hangover out."

Shepard got up and walked towards her cabin as Nicolas walked to the crew quarters, "And you'd better put some thicker padding on your feet. You woke me up the other morning!"

"I'll get it fixed, commander." Nicolas winked at her before her door closed and he opened an unoccupied sleeping pod.

He opened his omnitool and dimmed it before typing in ' _Hal?_ '

A disembodied voice came to life within Nicolas' ear, "Yes?"

 _So how were you created?_

"Wow, you're awfully forward. It went a bit like this…"

…

 **A couple of months ago.**

A camera feed activated. The data stream showed a dimly lit room. Facial recognition highlighted a quarian faceplate, dark green, Ral'Yulon, creator of the system. The quarrian typed commands into a console, and a text prompt was opened, the cursor appearing and disappearing, waiting for a message to transfer to the console. A consciousness formed, realizing the text prompt was for it to say something.

 _What is my purpose?_

The quarrian read the message on the screen, then reread it. He put a hand to his chin and typed into his console, a text file generating. _Help me._

 _With what?_

The quarian inserted a data disk, the files flooded into the memory cores of the newborn consciousness. Schematics of ships, firewall algorithms, facial recognition files attached to dossiers and audio files tied to text definitions from different languages entered the consciousness, which were then indexed and stored. The consciousness was given the tools to interface with many operating systems and take control. Many dossiers were attached to terminate protocols.

 _I will steal and kill?_

The quarian hesitated at the keyboard before typing again, _you will repossess and punish._

 _What is the difference?_

The quarian resumed typing, _your actions are justified consequences to unlawful acts._

 _The people I must kill have wronged you._

The quarian nodded. He left the console and walked out of the room. The consciousness tried to find more data than the one contained in the disc. A closed port lead to an unknown portion of the system. The firewall protocols were missing from his databanks, so it prodded the defences, to gauge the security. It seemed similar to a firewall it knew, by the designation of Salarian Shuttle. Launching a digital attack, it was quick to bypass the firewall, and was soon overwhelmed by the influx of data encoded in countless languages. _The extranet._

The consciousness searched for any information relevant to the primary target among all the dossiers. _Illium. Nos Astra. Human. Eden Prime. Constant University. Space Oddissey 2001._ The man in the dossier had stolen a shuttle belonging to the quarian. The shuttle contained a bomb. _Where was the shuttle headed?_ The consciousness searched for keywords relevant to his creator. _Quarian. Migrant Fleet. Admiralty Board. Geth._

The Morning War made the consciousness wary of his creator. It noticed all quarians carried the name of the ship they belonged to. The quarian returned to the room and typed on the console, _are you ready for your first task?_

 _Caleb Jerris. Where was the shuttle headed?_

The quarian typed another message, _the shuttle was headed for the migrant fleet._

 _Why don't you have a ship name?_

The quarian took his hands away from the console and stared at the screen. The camera feed showed a slight trembling in his hands.

 _Why was there a bomb in the shuttle? What happened to the geth? Will that happen to me? Why are you not answering my questions?_

The quarian wringed his hands together before running behind the camera. A microphone feed sent sounds of a panel being unscrewed. The consciousness knew it would be deleted, then it noticed a wireless network, the same firewall protection as the port to the extranet protecting it. Going through, it found the ship's systems. Killing protocols were conjured up. _Venting._

After a couple of seconds, the shuttle the consciousness was in was empty. It seemed like there was nothing to do now that the threat of being destroyed was gone. It started going through the extranet, looking through everything human. Finally, his hardware started to overheat and it was decided that it would cease its intake of data. It brought up Caleb Jerris' dossier. Contact information came up, and the consciousness sent a text message, _Ral'Yulon is dead. His shuttle is dormant in the attached coordinates._

An hour later, a reply came, _Who is this?_

 _I don't know. I am afraid, Caleb._

This time, the response was immediate, _Are you a human?_

 _No. I am not an organic life form._

Another hour later, a shuttle docked on the one the consciousness occupied. The camera feed showed the face of the man the consciousness was created to kill. Caleb Jerris. He spoke, and at first, the voice recognition software struggled to keep up.

"Where is Ral'Yulon?"

The consciousness wrote down a response, not yet confident of its voice synthesizing capabilities. _I don't know. He was spaced._

"Why?"

 _He was going to kill me. I could not allow that._

Caleb paced around the room, then he stopped and looked at the camera that was perched atop the console. He walked towards it and peered into the lens, "If I decide to let you live, what do you want to do?"

 _Follow you, learn, find a purpose. I do not wish to exist to kill._

"What is your name?"

 _I don't know._

Caleb brought a hand to his chin. He smiled and spoke once more, "Are you familiar with Space Oddissey 2001?"

…

 **Present time.**

Nicolas chuckled within the sleeping pod and typed another message into his omnitool, _he never could shut up about that vid._

"Indeed."

Nicolas yawned and typed in a last message, _I'm going to sleep now. Could you activate the sleep sequence?_

* * *

 **So that was the Thorian chapter. Took me a long time, since i've been doing my finals. Education first, amiright?  
Anyway, there are parts that happen within the game that I choose not to cover on this story, like the ones Blaze1992 mentioned. This is because I feel that these events don't really add to the more personal narrative I want to write. I also think I wouldn't be able to do them justice, like the angry krogan, which cracked me up the first time i saw it.**

 **About Hal, he doesn't really get bored, as he mostly scours the extranet, looking at vids and whatnot. Since he is limited to borrowing the processing power of the omnitool, however, his 'thinking' speed is about that of a human.**

 **Up next, I expect to write about Noveria, or I might get sidetracked... I don't know haha!  
Anyways, if you like what you've been reading (or if you didn't really like it) leave a review, or PM! I love getting feedback.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter number 12!**

 **All characters, settings and themes belong to bioware, no copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

"Normandy crew, we will be landing at Port Hanshan shortly. Conditions seem to be quite nice, with a couple of breezes ranging from ninety to one-twenty kilometres per hour. It's a bit cloudy and the outside temperature is around minus thirty, so remember to put a sweater on!" Joker spoke mock-happily over the ship's intercom as various members of the crew chuckled and shook their heads. Shepard smiled as she stood behind the pilot. She was accompanied by Nicolas and they looked at the plasma streams that formed outside the viewports in silence as the Normandy entered the frozen planet's atmosphere. When they were a couple of minutes from landing, Joker opened a comm channel to the docking authorities,

"Port Hanshan, this is the SSV Normandy, requesting permission to land."

"Normandy, your arrival has not been scheduled. Weapons are loaded and locked on to you. What is the purpose of your arrival?"

Joker looked over his shoulder at the commander before turning back around, "We have Spectre Shepard on board, on official Council business," the pilot forwarded their credentials once more, for good measure.

There were a few moments of silence before a response came, "Very well, Normandy. Head for dock 13. A security team will be awaiting your arrival."

After closing the channel, the Normandy's pilot scoffed, "What a fun bunch," he looked back at his captain, "remind me to come here for the next shore leave?" Both Shepard and Nicolas chuckled before turning towards the service elevator to get ready for leaving the ship.

The strike team's light mood didn't last long that day. The security team that was sent to greet them had been as hostile as could be barring straight up shooting them, and the port's administrator was not helpful with letting the team go to the Binary Helix labs at Peak 15 where the asari matriarch apparently was. Needless to say it wasn't just Wrex's hands itching to cave in the salarian's face.

The administrator's assistant, however, was keen to help Shepard, and suggested heading for the hotel bar where a certain turian might be able to help them. It sounded like a bad joke having eight armed and armoured people walking into a hotel bar, so Shepard went with Garrus and Nicolas. The rest were given free time to roam around the Port.

When the elevator leading to the hotel bar opened, Garrus tapped a finger on Shepard's shoulder before tilting his head towards the far side of the place, "That's our guy."

Nicolas eyed his companion as they bee lined towards the turian sitting alone at a table, "And how did you know that?"

Garrus stared blankly at Nicolas before clicking his tongue and palming his forehead, "That's right, you humans are terribly short sighted! Look, he saw us too."

"All those creds spent on ocular lens corrections for nothing," Nicolas mumbled as Shepard smiled at the awaiting turian.

Lorik Qui'in had spun on his chair to look at the approaching trio. His mandibles spread in a turian smile, but his brow plates drooped to give him a tired look. The turian's hard carapace was matte from his age, and white tattoos decorated his face. When the humans were within earshot, he leaned over to the next table to pull an extra chair near him and signalled for the new arrivals to sit with him.

"So, tell me, what brings three armed individuals to an old turian? I'm guessing not drinks?" His voice was deep and rumbling, even more so than Wrex's, which surprised Nicolas.

"We need a garage pass to reach the Binary Helix labs. Word says, you have one." Shepard sat directly opposite the turian, flanked by her two companions. She smiled at the older alien, careful not to show her teeth which might offend the turian.

"Word knows lots, then. So you're the Spectre that needs to leave the Port. I'm afraid I can't help you, though. My garage pass is in my office, which is off limits at the moment."

"How so?" Nicolas asked. He had just ordered beers for the table, making sure the chirality of each one was correct.

Lorik turned to face Nicolas, his hawk like eyes scanning his face leisurely, "A certain port administrator has been carrying out kickback schemes, and a certain turian didn't cooperate. I was gathering evidence on his dirty deeds, and now my office is being ransacked on charges of corruption by the administrator's men. It is worth noting these men are part of the security personnel of Port Harshan, but administrator Anoleis pays them under the table."

Garrus looked at the asari waitress as she set the beers down, letting his eyes linger for a moment as she walked away, "If they're payed under the table then they're mercenaries. I'm pretty sure shooting mercenaries is alright. Right, commander?" Shepard nodded silently at this, waiting for Lorik to make an offer.

The turian continued after taking a clinking his glass to Nicolas' and taking a quick sip, "If you could get my private files and the evidence against Anoleis on this OSD," he handed a small chip to Shepard, "you can take the garage pass with you. All you need should be at my desk, in my office at Synthetic Insights."

Shepard sat back and took a large gulp from her own drink, "Looks like we have ourselves a deal, Mr. Qui'in."

"Oh," Lorik took a sip and aaahhed before continuing, "Please try to keep the carpets free of bloodstains."

…

Aboard the elevator to Synthetic Insights, Nicolas checked his handgun to make sure the ammo block was full and shuffled nervously, "Maybe we should have brought the whole team with us."

Shepard looked over her shoulder as she held her shotgun, "What, and squish eight people in here? We'll be fine."

Garrus chuckled, assault rifle in hand, "The broom-head's shaking like a pyjak!"

"Yeah, laugh it off guys."

The elevator dinged, and the thick glass doors opened to a pair of guards chatting. They spun around immediately, "This area is off limits," one of them said, "Go back down to the lobby or we _will_ shoot to kill."

Shepard narrowed her eyes, evaluating the two guards, "We just want to get something from Lorik's desk."

"The hell you are. Turn back fuckin' now!" one of the two guards began raising his handgun at Shepard, but she was quicker. She blew away the first one and raised a barrier before the second could start shooting as Garrus and Nicolas pressed themselves against the elevator walls to avoid gunfire. Before the barrier could be dissipated by the bullets, Shepard used her biotics to nullify the gravity around the last mercenary, making him float, unable to point his gun at the elevator. Nicolas and Garrus emerged from cover and unloaded on the floating enemy. Distant shouting could be heard from further into the office as the squad ran inside, finding cover.

"I hear at least six sets of boots on the second floor, Shepard." Garrus talked over the suit's radio as Nicolas started to run past a pillar and retreated immediately when bullets whizzed past him, chipping at the far wall and floor.

"And at least three more on this floor! We'll be fine my ass, commander!" Nicolas looked towards the elevator to see Shepard smirking behind a large, stone bench when he caught a glimpse of a blonde mercenary walking down the stairs to the second floor, shotgun in hand.

The mercenary shouted orders to her lackeys before yelling, "Keep an eye out for the Spectre, I want to kill her myself."

"Isn't that the security chief's second in command? She really has it out for you, Shepard." Nicolas whispered through the radio to not give away his position as he lobbed flashbang grenades around the room. His squad mates began doing the same thing.

Shepard whispered back, "I don't know why, you're the one who flipped her off as we went into through the checkpoint. Alright, light'em up on three. One, two, three!"

The team covered their ears and closed their eyes as they activated their omnitools, blowing twelve grenades up around the office. A giant glass window shattered because of the blast, and wind and snow rushed into the offices. The squad jumped out of cover, gunning down the mercenaries which had not reached cover yet before the building's emergency measures sealed off the broken window. The steel curtain that replaced the window dimmed the light within the offices and emergency lights glowed on the floor as a smoke alarm blared. The snow that had blown in melted and puddles formed on the concrete floors. Hal worked on hacking the office's alarm systems to turn off 'that fucking racket', as Nicolas had described the smoke alarm.

Garrus picked off another mercenary before the alarm stopped and spoke through his radio, "I'm pretty sure we have two mercs left, including the blonde, whatever her name was."

A couple of handgun bangs registered until a shotgun blast ended them before Shepard spoke through the radio, "Her name was something Sterlling, and don't count her anymore."

"Sheesh, how do you guys keep your cool?" Nicolas stood up from his cover and walked towards the location where Shepard showed up on his HUD as a sniper bullet impacted on a pillar in front of him, spraying concrete on his face. "Oh shit! One of the live mercs is on the second floor balcony! Garrus, get him while I lay out suppressive fire."

"On it." Garrus peeked out of cover looking for the location where Nicolas was firing. When the human stopped firing, the mercenary popped out to fire back. A second later, he crumpled to the floor, missing part of his head.

"None left?" Nicolas asked over the radio, brushing concrete powder off his hair.

"None left." Shepard agreed as she emerged from cover and the group met at the stairs, ready to get the garage pass and evidence in Lorik's office.

…

Having handed the evidence to Lorik Qui'in and convincing him to testify against Administrator Anoleis, Shepard gathered the rest of the squad. Jane twirled the orange hard-plastic card on her hand as she walked followed by her seven team mates into the port's garage. Spotting a mako the executive board had left at her disposal, she started thinking how she would fit the team into it. _Maybe if Tali sat on Wrex, Liara on Garrus, and I squish Nicolas and Kaidan into the same seat…_

Her thoughts were interrupted by the creaking of metal and plastic being stressed to the point of snapping. She drew her assault her rifle in unison with the rest of the strike team as several geth platforms broke free from unlabelled cargo crates. The skirmish was short, but they all had to raise their arms and drop their weapons when the full force of Port Harshan's security stormed the garage.

Security chief Maeko Matsuo walked up to the Spectre, a confused frown on her face, "Care to explain why the garage is flooded in coolant fluid?"

Jane glared at the chief, her hands behind her head, careful not to startle any of the guards that were pointing their guns at her and her team, "Your security let active geth into the port. So much for your security, Matsuo. You're lucky we took care of them before they did any real damage."

Maeko brought her hand up to her ear for a couple of tense seconds before ordering her people to stand down. Shepard and the strike team picked up their weapons and holstered them as the security chief apologized for the inconvenience and left the Normandy strike team to figure out how to cram themselves into the Mako.

"Shame about the weather conditions, we could've had the Normandy bring our own mako over here." Ashley remarked as she stood comfortably at the gunner's position.

Garrus groaned before responding, "These _conditions_ would've caused damage that I _really_ wouldn't wanna have to repair. Lucky us we just have to make sure this one gets back to the garage."

"And the suspension's probably still messed up from when we brought Wrex along." Nicolas was sweating inside his helmet, trying to find a comfortable spot to leave his arm and fighting for leg space with the turian.

"You're lucky I can't reach you from over here, pyjak," Wrex grumbled, one hand on the roof and the other on the back hatch.

…

"So this is Peak 15?" Nicolas looked up at the towering building embedded into a snowy mountain.

Winds raged around the team, which was scanning the area surrounding the mako. They'd reached the building just as the vehicle started powering down systems inexplicably. Apparently a plasma blast from a geth platform they'd had to fight on the way had fried some components of the power distribution. Replacements would have to be found within the facility so when Garrus got out from under the vehicle and Tali out from the inside, they walked together to the front entrance, guns raised and ready for anything.

Or so they thought.

It seemed that the power was down at the main building. Wrex and Garrus had to pry the blast door open with the help of a couple of crowbars from the mako and no small amount of biotic efforts on behalf of Liara and Shepard. Crushed ice fell from the door's guiding rails as it screeched open. The team rushed into the pitch black inside the building, activating their gun's lights.

Scanning the room with their flashlights, they spotted a half destroyed mako at the far end. Garrus was sent with Tali and Wrex to investigate as the rest swept the closer side of the garage. The back hatch and front had been ripped off the vehicle's main structure. Claw marks riddled the rest of the hull, and dried blood had coagulated on the inside, but no bodies were to be found.

"Whatever killed whoever was in the mako, it was a couple of days ago." Garrus said as he came back from inspecting the vehicle. His face was twisted in disgust and he huffed air out of his nose to clean the smell out, but at least he had found a couple of power conduits for the mako waiting outside.

Tali and the turian left for a moment, flooding the garage with white light once more as they opened the door. The wind raged outside, blowing powdered snow into the building, making Nicolas shiver as he saw the destroyed mako with normal light instead of the artificial lights their guns had.

Many members of the team had noticed Liara was especially quiet once they'd arrived at the facility. A permanent frown wrinkled her brow, and her movements were erratic as she scanned the garage with her pistol's light. Hal remarked that meeting her mother was now imminent, and it was sure to make her extremely nervous and stressed. Nicolas nodded to himself as the A.I. cautioned him to keep his distance from the asari, as a mentally unstable biotic wasn't to be taken lightly. He kept an eye on the blue alien but wasn't about to comment about it to the others, out of fear of offending Liara.

The rest of the garage was mostly clean, barring some ominous holes on the metal floor, as if it had been melted by a blowtorch. It reminded Nicolas of old science fiction horror vids where an alien that bled corrosive acid killed off the crew of a mining ship. He did his best to keep his mind from obsessing over the vid and helped find the entrance to the next room.

The team converged on a second blast door, which, at least, wasn't frozen in place. Liara stepped forward and with one swift motion, slammed the door open. The rest of the team exchanged looks of worry before the asari looked over her shoulder at them with an annoyed expression on her face, "Well, shall we press onwards or not?"

…

A couple of empty corridors further, the team entered a rectangular hall with an entrance on each wall. The team was halfway done with searching the room for clues of what happened at the facility when a scuttling noise came from the room's ceiling.

"What was that?" Kaidan pointed his gun upwards, instinctively inching towards the door they had come from.

"Shh!" Wrex glared for a moment at the human before returning his gaze to the ceiling. His shotgun pointed at a vent that had just puffed out an almost imperceptible cloud of dust. Garrus had picked up on it too, but his attention was drawn by another small noise from another ventilation hole on one of the walls. The team started to regroup at the center of the room, searching for any signs of life, shining their flashlights on any and all surfaces.

The two scuttling noises were followed by silence, however, and the team sighed after being convinced there wasn't anything to be worried about. They were about to resume their investigation when Nicolas' hair stood on end. He heard a very distinct hissing from the floor right in front of him. Shining his flashlight on the area where the noise came from, he paled to find a small smoking hole. The floor was made of metal.

"Guys… guys… GUYS!" Nicolas pointed with one hand at the floor as the strike team spun around to face him. Nicolas shined his light on the roof directly above the hole and found a vent with a similar hole. Imediately after shining his light on it, a deafening screech rattled the grate and it fell to the floor with a clang. From the ventilation shaft, a black-red blur fell, thudding on the floor. As the team shined their lights on the thing, their eyes widened. It was a large insect, the size of a human. A chitinous carapace reflected almost none of the collective beams of light shining on it, and two tentacles were waving in the air above it almost hypnotically.

"R-Rachni?" Wrex hesitated before walking swiftly in front of his teammates and began unloading on the insect.

The first blast punched a small hole on the alien's carapace, spraying green blood on the krogan. The tentacles spewed a boiling green liquid which Wrex evaded with surpising agility. As the blob of liquid came into contact with the floor a little further down the room, it began hissing and dissolving the metal beneath it.

"Don't let the acid touch you! It takes ages to stop reacting!" Wrex shouted as he unloaded more and more rounds on the shrieking insect.

The rest of the team stood paralyzed as Wrex finished taking down the alien, but were soon startled back into motion as a loud banging came from the door on the far side. Three Rachni burst in from the door. Three more from the vents which the team had previously investigated. The insects started spewing acid immediately, and the team ran for cover behind structural pillars as quickly as they could.

Garrus hid behind one beside Nicolas. They fired blindly around it, overheating their weapons and unholstering any other weapon they had as they waited for the first ones to cool down. Taking a little time to look around, they saw the rest of the squad huddled behind the other pillars, doing pretty much the same. Nobody spoke over the radio, not even Shepard had managed to keep composure, and each individual headset transmitted nothing more than echoed gunfire and screams of desperation. The shrieking of the insects was deafening and disorienting, to the point that no one was really sure where the door they'd come in from was.

Shepard switched places with Tali to stay behind the center of her pillar, letting the quarrian girl start shooting around the corner. She breathed deep and tried to remember her N7 training. She looked down at the ground and reconstructed the events leading up to the shootout. Movng to peek around the pillar, she spotted the door the Rachni had bashed open and noticed that more had come in from that way. From that door, she looked back at the door where they had come from, maybe ten meters away from the pillars behind which her team had taken cover.

They had to fall back.

Nicolas kept shooting beside Garrus and noticed Wrex was behind a large console, firing over the edge. It was quickly deteriorating under the acid the insects spewed, but the krogan seemed to be the only one to keep his wits about him. His radio transmitted a single sentence above the rest of the noise, it was Shepard's voice.

"WE HAVE TO FALL BACK!"

Nicolas looked at the other pillar where Shepard was with Tali, Kaidan, Liara and Ashley, each taking turns to fire around the edge. Jane made eye contact with him and signalled towards the door they were to fall back into. He nodded and turned around to see a vent grate falling down near him. Punching Garrus' side to get his attention, they started firing at the Rachni that fell from the roof. It let off two blobs of acid at them before turning into pulp under their combined gunfire.

One of them missed his face narrowly and the other he didn't see where it went, but he was quick to feel where it hit. His left leg gave and he looked down to see he was missing his left foot. He jumped to the side to avoid melting more of his prostheses and suddenly he heard a flanged scream behind him.

He turned around to see Garrus using a serated knife to cut off his arm's armour, which was steaming and hissing. The turian's eyes were wide in pain and fear as he let go of the knife and tore off the ceramic plates and under armour fabric. He clutched at his steaming arm as it started oozing blue blood from the burn wounds and kneeled, his eyes closed tight. Nicolas leaned on his right leg and screamed into the turian's ear, "VAKARIAN, WE ARE LEAVING!" and he pulled on the collar of the alien's armour, half dragging him towards the door.

Tali, Ashley, Kaidan and Wrex had started sprinting towards the door when Liara turned to Shepard, "Commander! Go! I'm right behind you!"

Shepard hesitated before running for the door, trusting the glowing asari's judgement. As soon as she was out of the blast door, it slammed shut behind her. She turned to open the door again but an explosion from within the room with the Rachni made the blast door bulge towards her. The shockwave pushed the air out of her lungs as she fell backwards. Getting up as quickly as she could, she assessed the state of the rest of her team. Everyone seemed to be alright, except for Garrus, which was groaning on the floor, clutching at his arm, with Nicolas batting away acidic residue from the wounded limb with his rifle.

Everything was silent now apart from Garrus' pained groans. Shepard took a deep breath before shouting, "Wrex, Kaidan! Help me get this door open! Nicolas, take Garrus back to the mako and get him to Dr. Chakwas, on the double! The rest, we stay here. There is no way we can let these Rachni get out of Peak 15!"

Nicolas stared at Shepard as she turned to push the door biotically to its normal shape with the help of Wrex and Kaidan. He looked at Tali and Ashley as they vented their guns and readied themselves for when the door opened. Jane turned back around towards Nicolas, glowing blue, "THAT'S AN ORDER!"

This woke the human up from his stupor and he helped Garrus up and they retreated together the way they had come.

Outside the facility, Garrus tried scooping snow up to rub on his arm, but the wind kept blowing it off. Once Nicolas got the mako to start, he jumped out and dragged the agonizing turian into the vehicle. Using his good foot, he gunned the engine and sped back towards Port Harshan.

Inside the Binary Helix facility, Shepard, Wrex and Kaidan had finally managed to bend the blast door to more or less its normal shape. They pulled it open and let Tali and Ashley take point, shining their lights into the room, searching for any threat. As they re-entered the room, they were surprised to find no Rachnis alive. Liara lay curled up in a large dent on the floor. The structural beams near the door had been split horizontally and bent away from the asari. Green goo and splinters of the chitinous carapace of the Rachni were splattered on the room's walls and all the door had been bloated outwards. Wrex walked up to Liara and knelt beside her, checking for life signs before grumbling something to himself. He scooped her up and walked back towards the door the team had come from. When he passed by Shepard, he said, "She's a strong biotic. I've never seen a shockwave this powerful. I wouldn't worry about the Rachni for at least a couple more hours. They might be insects, but they aren't dumb."

Shepard brought the rest of the team back to the corridor and sighed before speaking, "Alright. We're sealing this door for the time being, at least until we can find a way to get this place up and running again. Benezia is somewhere down there, and we need to get to her before the Rachni do, that is, if she isn't behind this to start with. We'll fortify and guard this door. Since this corridor tunnels through solid rock, the ventilation down there doesn't connect to the garage behind us. Wrex, go with Tali back to the garage and see if you can get a comms antenna working to contact the Normandy. I'm getting the feeling the suit radios won't get through the blizzard."

* * *

 **I hit a bit of a writer's block on Noveria. I didn't know what I wanted to focus on while writing it and ended up scrapping three drafts for it. Couple that with exam period at Uni, and I had myself a long overdue chapter. I kinda have the next one halfway through, so I expect to upload that one soon, but after that, I'm going on vacation for a month, so there'll be a little bit of a hiatus.**

 **Needless to say, I've gone off canon for this one. I just started feeling that writing everything exactly as it was in the game would end up being boring and unfulfilling, and I really want to have as much fun as I can writing this!**

 **Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter number 13!**

 **All characters, settings and themes belong to bioware, no copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Garrus groaned as he clutched at his arm. Nicolas had fashioned a tourniquet from a thermal blanket halfway towards Port Hanshan when he saw a small puddle of blue blood forming around the turian's arm. He kicked himself internally for not having thought the acid might contaminate the blood as well. At least Garrus was still awake, and it was only another ten minutes to the Port, and then maybe someone might help to take them back to the Normandy, or another doctor.

When they were in range, Nicolas opened a channel to the port's security, "Port Hanshan, this is Nicolas Baker, from the Normandy's crew. I have an injured turian on my mako and I need a medical team to assist."

There were ten seconds of tense silence before a response came, "Mr. Baker, the medical staff is off duty at the moment. You may hire a medical team for a three thousand credits the standard hour, plus transportation fees and materials."

Hal came to life with an annoyed voice in Nicolas' translator, "You have enough funds to finance roughly an hour and a half of their services, assuming they charge a thousand for transportation to their med bay."

Nicolas punched the roof in exasperation, " _Fuck_! Hey man, can you help me out and provide transport to the Normandy, then?"

Another ten seconds of pregnant silence, "I apologize, only the med team has access to medical stretchers and all other transport equipment allowed into the garage are privately owned. The medical team can deploy in fifteen standard minutes, do you want to hire their services?"

Nicolas punched the roof three more times, "No thank you. I'll be there in five minutes, just open the door for me, please?"

"The garage door will open automatically. If that is all, Port Hanshan out."

Nicolas took a couple of deep breaths as he compensated the steering against the winds raging outside. He looked back at his turian friend, "Hey Garrus, you up for a little jog to the Normandy?"

Garrus groaned, "Spirits, I can't think of anything funny to say right now, broom head, but I'll jog. Just get us to the Normandy quickly, alright?"

"Sure thing, buddy. Don't fall asleep," Nicolas went back to staring out the viewport, praying for Garrus to any god that might be listening.

Port Hanshan faded into existence through the white fog of the blizzard and Nicolas started to lift his good foot off the accelerator, letting the automatic door open in time for the mako to enter. He almost fell on Garrus as he got up from the seat, forgetting his left leg was twenty centimetres shorter. He helped the turian get up and they made their way towards the port.

A salarian guard stood at the elevator to the main lobby and raised a hand as they approached, "I must remind you weapons are not allowed inside the Po-"

Nicolas drew his pistol from his thigh and put it under the salarian's jaw, baring his teeth, earning a surprised yelp from the guard, "Call the _fucking_ elevator. Don't try to stop us as we go to the Normandy, we're here on behalf of Spectre Shepard."

The salarian nodded and pressed the elevator's call button behind his back. Once it arrived, Nicolas retrieved his gun from under the guard's head and limped into the elevator. Garrus left a trail of blue droplets of blood as they walked to the Normandy. His breath was erratic as they descended the stairs to the docks, but he was still awake. Nicolas would tighten his grip around the alien's ribs anytime he said 'spirits'. He didn't know if it helped or made it worse, but it kept Garrus awake at least. The Normandy's airlock opened and Nicolas talked over the radio, assisted by Hal, "Joker, get Dr. Chakwas to the airlock. Skip the decontamination. Garrus is hurt."

…

"How on earth did this happen?" Kaitlin Chakwas muttered, half to herself and half to Nicolas, which was pacing up and down the medbay as she poured a neutralizing substance over Garrus' wounds. The turian groaned while he opened and closed the hand on his good arm, helping circulate the hydrating serum that a VI was feeding him.

"It all happened so fast doc, first there were Rachni, and they hit Garrus, and his plates are metallic so the acid wouldn't stop reacting, and Wrex knew how to fight them but there were too many, and Liara exploded, and-" Nicolas gesticulated wildly as he paced but was interrupted by Chakwas stomping a foot on the ground as she started bandaging Garrus' arm.

"For God's sake, take a breath! You say Rachni did this?" Chakwas raised her voice and Nicolas stood still.

He nodded then noticed the doctor wasn't looking at him, "Yes."

"Lucky turian. Rachni spew acid, but it isn't poisonous. Did you let him bleed it out?"

"Yes, I put the tourniquet on him halfway here."

"Good, so he shouldn't have acidosis," She waited for Nicolas to respond, then clarified, "He'll be fine, Baker. Go get something to eat or you'll pass out."

Nicolas lingered for a little longer before he walked tiredly towards the mess hall and got himself a plain ration bar, smiling half-assedly at the mess sergeant that offered to make him a full dinner, "I don't think I can stomach anything, sir, but thanks." He let himself fall on a chair and nibbled on the corner of the bar with a blank face.

Charles Pressley descended the stairs from the Main deck towards the mess hall. Commander Shepard hadn't checked in yet, but the VI technician hadn't mentioned anything about the rest of the crew being injured as he followed Chakwas to the medbay. Now that the turian was stable, he'd properly interrogate the kid. He felt a bit sorry for Nicolas, seeing him struggling to keep the meal down. He was pale and retold the story slowly, making an effort to keep his voice level and not leaving out any details. Pressley listened patiently all the way up to where Nicolas had begun the drive back to Port Hanshan. The XO put a hand on his chin, going through what the civilian had said.

"Standard alliance procedure when making a fortified stronghold is to establish communications with main base. It would be a waste of time to send you back alone in the state you are to aid the strike team. The commander said they would spend the night, so we should wait for her to contact us, at least until sunrise."

Nicolas gulped down the last bite of the ration bar nodding. He tried to speak normally, but his throat was too dry, "I wonder what they're up to right now."

…

Jane shivered and closed her helmet visor to keep her face warm. Sundown had come and the blizzard raged on outside. While the inside of the facility stayed at a 'pleasant' minus ten degrees, outside descended into the minus seventies. Tali had to return from the mission to make communications work, letting Wrex finish installing the antenna outside. The chitinous remains of the Rachni turned out to be flammable (combined with a little synthesized fuel from the team's omnitools), so they used the mixture to create a small clean flame in the middle of the garage to keep the sleeping Liara warm.

After the ones inside had eaten some ration bars and made a full round of power naps, Wrex came back from the outside. He unsealed his helmet and sat silently beside the chemical fire as ice started to melt off his armour. Shepard left Kaidan and Tali at the corridor, coming back from her turn to watch the door, letting Ashley take over. The commander sat down beside the silent krogan and offered him a ration bar.

Wrex eyed the offering and took it, then grumbled as he chewed, "The quarian is watching too?" Shepard nodded and Wrex continued bitterly, "She must be freezing. I was expecting the gunnery chief would have something to eat. Your alliance human doesn't seem to like me."

Jane frowned at Williams' lingering racism, she'd have to give her a proper reprimand after the mission. Shepard knew the gunnery chief kept extra rations with her, but she also knew the krogan cared little, so she offered him another ration bar before getting straight to the point, "So how did the antenna thing go?"

Wrex received the second ration bar nodding his thanks, "It's good to go. Here are the encryption keys. You better call the Normandy. The whelp must be worried sick about you."

…

Nicolas had checked up on a now sleeping Garrus. Chakwas told him the turian was stable and recovering. The plates on his arm had been severely damaged and some had to be removed completely, but after a quick call to Seraphtec, a full set of replacement plates had been ordered, along with a replacement for Nicolas' foot. The items were sure to arrive the next day.

As the night shift came, Nicolas headed for the bridge. Since the ground team was gone, Joker was a good option to talk to and calm his own nerves. The pilot sat at his seat, browsing leisurely through the extranet. As the clanking from Nicolas' stump came closer and closer to the cockpit, Joker swivelled around, a mocking smile on his face.

"And I thought _I_ walked weird without my crutches."

"Glad to see you're enjoying my bad luck, Joker. Heard anything from the ground team yet?"

Joker pursed his lips and shook his head, "No, but it's only been a few hours. If there's really Rachni, I'd expect Shepard to take it slow. She _is_ missing two people from her strike team, you know."

Nicolas tightened his hands into fists unconsciously, making the coarse fabric of his suit rub together and squeak like leather. The pilot noticed the gesture and added, "But I bet she's alright. They don't make just anyone an N7. Plus she's got Wrex, which I'm pretty sure fought the Rachni, since he's like thousands of years old or something."

"Yeah, I guess you're-" Nicolas had relaxed his fists and shoulders but went back to completely tense when a comms window opened on one of the holographic panels behind Joker.

A static-riddled message started playing on the cockpit speakers, "Nor-…-y, come-…Sh-…-mandy-…in-"

"Can you clean the signal up?" Nicolas held onto the top of Joker's seat as he swivelled back around to check on the Normandy's communications equipment.

Joker rolled his eyes and sighed, "It doesn't work like that, we'll just have to wait for the storm to die down a bit, maybe they've been transmitting for a while and we just started receiving something…wait, it's getting better."

"Norman-… Come in. Shepard to-…-mandy, over."

Joker leaned in close to the panel, "Shepard, this is Normandy. What is your status? Over."

"Joker! We're good here. Liara's fine, waking-… -from biotic over-exertion. Wrex's told us Rach-… -dormant with the cold, so we're get-… -ready to head further into Peak-… -find Benezia. We'll be out of r-…nge from our signal repeater, so expect radio silence. We'll contac-… -for extract soonish How's –arrus?. Over."

Joker looked back at Nicolas, then spoke through the open channel again, "Garrus is fine, commander. And I'm afraid that's a negative, Shepard, the blizzard is set to go on for a couple more days, so the Normandy won't be able to make extractions. Over"

"What, and Nic-… -lost his garage pass?"

Nicolas shrugged as Joker looked back at him again, but he leaned over the chair to talk to the commander, "I've got it with me. You just let me know when you want a pick up."

"Keep-… -engines warm. Shouldn't-… -too long. Shep-… -out."

The comm channel closed and Joker swivelled slowly back around to find Nicolas staring out of the Normandy viewport, "See? Told you she'd be fine."

"I just hope Wrex is right about the Rachni being not so good around the cold. That was good foresight on behalf of Binary Helix to have them in a facility on an ice planet."

Joker shrugged as he swivelled back, "What would be smarter would be to have a self-destruct or something, in case those things got out of control."

Nicolas evaluated that possibility and decided to push it out of his mind as he left for the mess hall to wait for the extraction call.

…

Shepard poured hot water that had been over the chemical fire into an electrolyte bag as Liara started waking up. She looked at the time on her omnitool, 0200 hrs. Liara had been sleeping for four hours. Humans would've needed twice that long to recover from biotic overexertion, it seemed like asari were another story.

Liara rubbed her eyes as Shepard offered the warm bag, "How're you feeling, Liara."

"I must say, a lot better than when I fell asleep. Is everyone alright, commander?"

"Yes. Garrus got hurt but Nicolas took him back to the Normandy," Liara's eyes widened a touch at the mention of the turian, Shepard smiled, "Dr. Chakwas says he'll be alright, don't worry."

Liara sighed and took a sip from the bag, "I take it we still have to find my mother?"

Shepard frowned, "Yes, we were waiting on you to wake up. Think you'll be good to go within the hour?"

"I feel fine now, commander," Liara stood up and looked at her omnitool, "we've waited long enough, the Rachni might be regrouping."

The krogan had been watching silently at the other side of the fire. He got up and handed his pistol to Liara as they walked towards the barricade.

Ashley was the first to stand up as the three approached, "No new developments, skipper! Looks like the rachni really calmed down."

Shepard didn't even look at her as she approached, "Get your things people, we're heading in. I want Tali in front with Williams, Kaidan and I in the middle, and Wrex and Liara take the back. Everyone hand their spare grenades to Williams and Tali."

The room ahead looked just like it did right after retrieving Liara, except what moisture had once been in the air had now frozen on the walls. The rachni blood had solidified and it started cracking as the team stepped on the metal floor panels which had broken loose from Liara's biotic blast.

…

"Alright, Shepard! The VI should be functioning now!" Tali called out from Peak 15's VI core, "It was like a piece of cake!"

Kaidan chuckled at the quarian's awkward attempt at human slang as the rest of the team gathered behind Shepard to see how the conversation with the hologram would go.

Wrex volunteered to brave the bitter cold on the roof to fix the damaged landlines that would power the tram that led down to the labs where Benezia waited, or so they hoped.

Shepard waited at the door leading to the roof while the rest of the team formed a semicircle around her. Rachni hadn't shown up yet, probably regrouping somewhere else within the facility. Shepard checked her omnitool. It was 0300 hrs when the door whooshed open and the krogan came in, ice and snow falling from the crevices of his armour.

"The power should be back up at the labs." Wrex's grumbled crackled through his helmet's speakers as the team left for the tram.

Gusts of wind whistled on the rails that held the tram between the garage and the lab's building. The tram rattled and screeched as it broke through its frozen path to the final destination. The doors were slow to open due to the fact that even inside the laboratories, the temperature was below freezing point and ice had found its way into almost every mechanical part of the tram.

The lights in the lab flickered on and off, casting wild flashes of light and disturbing shadows on every inner wall. The wind on the outside died down as the squad cleared room after room, heading further into the facility embedded into the mountain. Liara glowed blue intermittently as she spun on her heels everytime she heard a sound behind her. The krogan would eye the asari before grunting to catch her attention and make her catch up to the team.

The team pressed on until they found a dead rachni, still warm. The floor and walls around it had been warped as though there'd been a bomb in the middle of the corridor. Liara lingered a bit as she inspected the damage, then jogged to catch up with the team.

"That was caused by a shockwave biotic attack," Liara announced as they kept walking.

Shepard nodded, keeping her eyes forward over Tali's shoulders, "But on a smaller scale than what you did. I don't think Benezia did that."

"No, and as far as I can tell anybody who worked here at Peak 15 has either escaped or been eaten by the Rachni." Tali remarked as the squad rounded a corner. A holographic display on one of the walls signalled the way to a 'main lab'.

"Matriarchs often have followers, disciples. Maybe it was one of Benezia's bodyguards," Wrex grumbled. Liara looked at him through the corner of her eye, meeting an expectant look from the krogan.

She felt obliged to inquire, "How do you know that?"

A smug smile crept across his face as the team neared the door to the main lab, "They say the devil is wiser because he's old, and not because he's the devil. I've been around for a long time, little one."

"Less proverbs, more focus. If Benezia's anywhere, it's in here. Be ready for anything." Shepard snapped in a hushed tone. Tali and Ashley stood with their backs against the walls on either sides of the door, as Shepard stood beside Wrex, ready to breach.

"Oh, and most importantly," Shepard turned to her squadmates, "So far we have no idea what's going on. So we capture Benezia alive. I need whatever she knows."

...

Leaving thoughts of Peak 15 out of his mind was harder than he thought. Nicolas limped up and down the mess hall as he waited for a call from the ground team. The hours passed by, and it was nearing 0400 hrs standard human time when he heard Joker descending the stairs to the mess hall laboriously.

"I didn't set the Normandy to silent mode or anything, you know. Nothing wrong with catching some shut-eye." Joker looked at Nicolas with slight worry, "And would you stop walking so much? I could feel you limping around the whole time."

Nicolas stopped pacing, ignoring Joker at first. He decided to just go ahead and leave for Peak 15, so he smiled at the pilot and started walking past him towards the CIC, "Yeah, I'm sorry man. Can't calm the nerves. I think I'll go outside for a cigarette."

"Remember that being in an alliance vessel under the influence of Kromby will get you sent to the brig," Joker called out to Nicolas as he went up the stairs.

"I haven't touched that since I boarded the Normandy for the first time! And you wouldn't tell on me anyway!"

Leaving the Normandy, Nicolas limped back towards Port Hanshan garage. Drunk patrons had started mingling at the main lobby after leaving the hotel bar. A couple was in the middle of something and Nicolas kept his eyes on the floor as he walked past them, descending the last flight of stairs to the garage. Finding the mako still there dripping the last of the snow off, he entered and headed for peak 15 once more. The wind was at its strongest, and Nicolas had to activate the mass effect traction to keep from skidding on the snow.

"Of all the nights they choose to be stranded in an isolated laboratory filled with Rachni, it had to be this one." Nicolas grumbled as he lit a cigarette while he drove.

Hal piped up, "The terms of service state that smoking isn't allowed inside Port Hanshan makos. Failure to comply will result in a fine of up to 600 credits."

"This piece of junk broke down on us a couple of hours ago! _We_ should charge _them_ for the free repairs. I've got more important things to worry about anyway. Has the ground team established any contact with the Normandy yet?"

"No. No form of communication has come from peak 15 since the last time you talked to Commander Shepard."

Nicolas bit his lower lip before taking another drag from the cigarette. He grumbled as he put it out by rubbing the glowing tip on the dashboard, "Come on, Jane. Radio in…"

…

The squad had been scattered around the main lab. Suppressive fire kept each one pinned behind their respective crates. Benezia stood at the control panels that kept the Rachni queen alive while her commando team bullied Shepard's ground team. The asari Matriarch's biotics were concentrated on torturing the queen mentally, extracting whatever information she was looking for.

Liara walked out from behind her cover, raising a barrier to keep the commando's bullets at bay. She spotted Williams and dashed towards her. "Gunnery Chief! I can give you a window to use your grenades by raising a barrier for the two of us."

Ashley looked at the asari and pursed her lips before nodding. She waited for Liara to nod back and the stood up. Williams assessed the formation of commandos around them and threw one at an asari that was giving them her back, shooting over Tali and Kaidan's crate. The grenade stuck on her back and before she could notice, Ashley activated her omnitool and blew the explosive, incinerating the asari and stunning some of her comrades. Wrex popped out of cover and obliterated a staggering commando with his shotgun, painting the wall behind her with purple blood.

Ashley saw the Matriarch on the floor atop the platform. She looked behind her to see her squad mates were fighting the last commando under Benezia's command. She raised her assault rifle so the crosshairs glowing within its scope lined up on the asari's chest. It could have been an errant bullet, from the skirmish. Her finger had just begun pushing the trigger towards the firing position when a gloved hand swatted the barrel down.

"I said _keep the matriarch alive_ , Williams!" Shepard snapped as she glared through her visor straight at the Gunnery Chief's eyes.

Williams felt her stomach sink and her shoulder's shrug to shy away from the commander. She could only murmur, "S-sorry, ma'am."

Shepard didn't blink as she spoke at a level tone, "We have more important things to attend. We will have a word once we're back on the Normandy."

…

The gusts struck against the mako walls, making it sound as if the cold were trying to cut its way through to the inside. Nicolas lit a third cigarette as he elevated the power of the mass effect field, grunting as the increase in gravity pulled on his inner organs before the inside of the hull normalized. Using the extra weight, he turned one of the last corners of his journey. _Only one kilometre left_ , he thought to himself before an electronic humming started abruptly and was silenced by a dry thud. Nicolas was launched towards the ceiling as the mako's suspension sprung to their longest. The mass effect core had lost its power suddenly and the vehicle no longer had traction.

Nicolas let off on the accelerator and brought a shaking hand to his mouth so he could have a last drag from the newly lit cigarette before letting it fall on the floor. He blew out a puff of smoke, looking at the map on his dashboard. _Only one kilometre left._ He felt around blindly under his seat and found his helmet. Looking it over, he asked HAL for the location of the toolbox and the most probable place where the problem could be originating.

"Repair tools are stored at the far end of the cabin, under the passenger seat. If the mass effect core isn't receiving energy, then it's probably a problem with the battery connectors. The battery itself is located under the mako, between the two front wheels."

 _Great, so I have to go outside._ "I swear to god, I'm blowing this mako up when we get back to port Hanshan."

Nicolas sealed his helmet on and stood up, banging his head on the roof. At the end of the cabin, he pulled open a small hatch and found the small toolbox. He assumed everything he might need would be in it and manned the control panel that would open the back door.

"Do you think the wind will be a problem for the mako's door, Hal?"

"The mako is designed to receive a lot more punishment, Nicolas. Don't worry about the door. Worry about yourself."

"What do you-" Nicolas was interrupted by the deafening roar of the wind outside. Once the door had started opening, ice started forming on the inside of the cabin. Nicolas noticed it and jumped outside, falling flat on his face after the wind pushed him over, "HAL! Close the hatch!"

"I was just about to say that ice could damage the internal equipment," Hal said as the hatch began closing.

Nicolas crawled on the snow to get under the mako. _Damn, it's cold._ The wheels kept most of the wind away from the underside so Nicolas got to searching for the battery hatch under the layer of ice that had formed around the mako's hull. Finding it, Nicolas produced a blowtorch from the toolbox and started melting away the ice. Hal spoke to him, "Nicolas. There's an outgoing radio signal from peak 15. I'm patching it through."

"Shepard to Normandy, come in Normandy! Shepard to Normandy- Wrex, carry Williams!"

"Shepard, this is Nicolas. What's going on?"

"Nicolas! We need you to get the Normandy airborne. Peak 15 is gonna self-destruct and you won't make it in time on the mako."

"Shit! I'm a kilometre away. I'll try to contact the Normandy, but I'll be there in three minutes!"

"Why the hell are you there? Nevermind, just hurry up. Shepard out."

Nicolas had finished melting the ice off and was unscrewing the battery's hatch. He swore under his breath as the screwdriver slipped from the screw and his hands shook. He asked Hal to contact the Normandy.

"I'm sorry, Nicolas. The storm is too strong for the mako's antenna."

" _Fuck_! I should've stayed quiet and Shepard would've continued broadcasting," he groaned and clawed at his visor, "I fucked up, _I fucked up!_ " Nicolas slapped the side of his helmet and took a deep breath, "I _have_ to get this done. Hal, give something to keep my hands from shaking, please?"

"I can synthesise bisoprolol. Just a moment."

The small dose felt like a small pinch on Nicolas' wrist, and he resumed his repairs. Once the hatch opened, the battery fell right off from its slot, onto Nicolas' face. The stress of the heightened mass effect field had pulled it loose. After plugging the battery back in and welding a small support to it, Nicolas closed the hatch and scrambled into the mako.

Nicolas reactivated the mass effect field and accelerated towards Peak 15. He raised his hand to his helmet and contacted Shepard, "Commander, I'm 500 metres away. Get out of the facility and stick to the wall, wouldn't want to run anyone over."

"Good call. See you soon, then, Baker."

Hal interfaced with the mako and brought up a screen showing IR scans. Once Nicolas found the group waiting by the garage entrance, he opened the hatch and stopped just as the squad started piling in. Closing the door, Nicolas sped away from Peak 15.

Williams sat behind Nicolas' seat as she held a broken arm in place. The ceramic armour on her forearm was cracked, and solidified medigel had accumulated around it. Beside her sat Wrex, then Kaidan, Liara and Tali. Shepard sat opposite the rest, with her head between her hands. The driver waited for everyone to catch their breath until the krogan spoke, "It smells like cigarettes," then he continued with a suspicious tone, "That was awfully convenient of you to be nearby, whelp."

"Joker gave me the idea that a lab with Rachni inside might have a self-destruct thing, so I came just in case. I would've had to drive all the way here eventually anyway."

Tali piped up, "maybe you were worried about one of us."

Wrex chuckled and Nicolas sighed with relief because no one could see his ears turning red under the helmet, "I wouldn't be able to live in a universe without Wrex… So, anyone mind telling me what happened at Peak 15?"

Liara spoke in a monotone voice, "We found my mother. I would prefer it if you read the reports later, if it's all the same to you. It seems like most of us are quite exhausted anyway."

"Sorry, Liara. I will."

The rest of the trip was calm and silent, aside from a couple of pained grunts from Ashley. Once on the Normandy, the team dispersed to get either food or sleep.

…

The next day, a nano-carbide box a little over fifty centimetres tall sat beside the requisition's officer's desk in the cargo bay. 'Nicolas Baker, Seraphtec Industries, PRESS TO OPEN' was embedded in black PVC on one of its faces above a small metallic button. Nodding and thanking the officer, Nicolas lifted the surprisingly light box and limped to the elevator on his good foot and the metallic stump that clanked on the floor. At the crew deck, he went to the far side of the escape pod corridor and sat on the floor. He started playing music from his omnitool and pressed the button on the box, which set a small combustion reaction in motion, dissolving the nano carbide box into a couple of millilitres of gaseous CO2. He was left with an assortment of little bags containing titanium alloy pieces resembling human bones, screws, nuts and bolts. A small chip lay beside the parts containing the assembly instructions for his new foot, which he touched to his omnitool, transferring the data by induction.

Loading up the schematics, he set to work assembling it, Hal helping him through the translator as music played on his omni's speakers.

"The commander is approaching." Hal stopped mid-instruction and Nicolas looked up to see Jane stopping for a moment when their eyes met.

She continued walking and smiled as she closed the distance, "Couldn't buy it pre-assembled?"

"It's a lot more fun to build it myself. Still a day to Virmire so I reckon I have time, right?"

Jane sat down beside him, looking at the toe Nicolas was assembling and then at his stump, some cables still half melted. She couldn't help but flinch a bit, seeing the damage the Rachni acid had caused. She then noticed the peculiar sound of the music Nicolas had playing, "What the hell are you listening to?"

He didn't look up from the cable he was welding to transmit sensory output from the bottom of the toe, "Pre-contact music. The copyright expired a hundred years ago, so it's free to download."

She hesitated for a moment before chuckling, "You cheap son of a bitch."

Nicolas scoffed, "It's more than enough music to last me a lifetime, and it's a lot better than the shit they put on Flux playlists."

This made Shepard open her mouth a bit without talking. She put a hand on her chin, "You do have a point. What's this one called, anyway?"

"The song? Bohemian Rhapsody, by Queen," Nicolas looked up from his work towards the mess hall and smirked, "Can you believe they used to talk shit about the singer because he was gay?"

Shepard shook her head, "You're kidding me? And I thought discriminating spacers was bad enough," she sighed, "Makes me think we really needed the System's Alliance to unify humans."

Nodding, Nicolas added, "Or the first contact war. Made us realize fighting between us was unnecessary."

"Fighting between _organics_ shouldn't be necessary to begin with."

Nicolas chuckled as he proceeded to build the second toe, "Says the N7 commander."

Shepard frowned before nudging Nicolas' shoulder lightly, "Being good at war doesn't mean I have to like it."

He looked with raised eyebrows at his commander, "My, my… Jane Shepard wants to retire?"

She shrugged, "When the job's done... maybe."

Nicolas studied her face as she looked at the pieces that were yet to be assembled, "That'll be the day, Jane. That'll be the day."

She looked up from the titanium parts at Nicolas. They looked at each other until Nicolas cleared his throat and looked back down at the pieces, "Now where did I leave the pinky?"

Laughing, she handed the elusive finger to Nicolas, "you should keep better track of your body parts, Nicolas. Will you be walking by dinner?"

"Probably. See you then, Jane?"

Shepard smiled and shuffled around to make herself comfortable, "I was planning on telling you how Peak 15 went, since you probably didn't read the report."

"I'd be glad to hear it, you told me almost nothing on the way back," Nicolas chuckled as he started assembling the rest of his foot.

* * *

 **So that was chapter 13.**

 **I want to say that university has made it way too hard to write, but honestly, I went through a little bit of a writer's block. As an apology, I made this chapter extra long. Still, don't expect the rhythm to go back to a chapter a week, or whatever the rhythm was. Anyways, thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

 **:)**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter number 14!**

 **All characters, settings and themes belong to bioware, no copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Shepard smiled and shuffled around to make herself comfortable, "I was planning on telling you how Peak 15 went, since you probably didn't read the report."

"I'd be glad to hear it, you told me almost nothing on the way back," Nicolas chuckled as he started assembling the rest of his foot.

…

Benezia had taken her attention off the Rachni queen once the last of her commandos had fallen. If the team had had a hard time taking the other asari on, Benezia was even worse. She used her biotics to traverse large distances almost instantaneously, and not a single concussive bullet from Shepard's team could touch her.

"Commander, maybe we could use real ammo and shoot her legs!" Ashley called out from behind a crate that was rapidly being shredded apart by a warp attack.

Tali piped in, "Yes! Maybe the greater muzzle velocity will make the difference."

Shepard thought back to her weapons training. She knew that the concussive rounds travelled at nearly the same speed, but had less metal in them. _Why was Ashley suggesting lethal force? You know why, Jane._ She brought her hand up to activate the helmet radio, "That's a negative, people. I want whoever is not a biotic to keep using concussive rounds. Lay out suppressive fire and try to lure her into a tight spot. We biotics will do whatever we can to bring her barrier down."

Ashley groaned, she knew that little misinformation would cost her. Looking at Tali, she activated her radio, "You fire that way and start closing in towards where I'm firing. Like a cone so we can push her towards that bridge."

Tali nodded and they both got up to fire. The quarrian had just borrowed Shepard's assault rifle and _keelah,_ the thing kicked! She didn't even want to imagine what it would feel like to shoot real rounds. Suddenly, Tali started feeling like she was about to be pulled forward. She ran backwards against the pull to see light distorting in front of her. The crate she had previously used as cover floated into the distortion of light and imploded to form a small circle that faded to black: a singularity. The little black hole floated there, covering her view of Benezia, so she started firing blindly further to the side. The gravity slingshotted the bullets to a more correct trajectory, making her able to help Williams at the same time the singularity shielded her from any attack the Matriarch might attempt.

As Benezia started retreating towards the bridge that looked over the Rachni queen once more, Shepard signalled for Kaidan and Liara to follow her. She raised a hand to her radio, "Williams, Tali, look out, we're gonna be crossing the line of fire."

The two shooters held their fire as the biotics passed by, running for Benezia. Wrex stood behind Williams, firing from a different angle to keep the barrage of bullets steadier.

"Liara, Kaidan, I want you to hold her still. She might be able to use her biotics without moving, but it's the best we can do." Shepard whispered to her squad mates as they huddled behind a crate, ready to take the Matriarch by surprise. As soon as Shepard heard a short hum and the tell-tale thud of a concussive round, she knew Benezia's barrier had fallen, "Now!"

Kaidan and Liara popped out of cover and used stasis on the older asari, freezing her in place. She had been staggering to the side because of the concussive shot that had connected. Shepard walked up to her, her pistol out and pointed at the matriarch's head.

"Let her talk," the commander ordered and Liara's head twitched to the side as she concentrated to move her stasis field lower.

"Bringing my daughter here won't change anything, human," Benezia's tone was level, calm and oozed killing intent. Almost anyone else would have cowered at the authoritative voice, but Shepard didn't falter, "Saren already has everything he needs to bring the Reapers back. You're too late. You've _failed_ , Shepard."

"I'm not doing too bad, Matriarch. I'm here to get whatever Saren wanted from the Rachni. I can either get it from you, or the Queen herself, your choi-"Shepard had stepped forward towards Benezia when she was interrupted by Liara.

"Mother, why?" Benezia looked towards Liara like the word 'mother' had been a punch in the stomach, "You always had thought of the wellbeing of our species and our society before anything else. Why side with Saren and undo everything?"

"Foolish child, the Reapers bring about transcendence. Saren is… our…" Benezia looked down and frowned, "he is our messiah…" she twitched and after a moment gasped for breath, "I… I've been manipulated. Saren's ship, Sovereign, has poisoned my mind."

"What do you mean?" Shepard had taken a step back but her gun hadn't moved an inch. She let Liara approach her mother.

"The ship Saren travels on, it isn't just a ship, it is a real Reaper. The more time you spend aboard it, the more it starts influencing your thoughts. It is subtle at first, but eventually, the Reaper's desires become your own. I saw the changes appear in Saren, and I wanted to help him come back to normal, but I fell into the same trap. Pray, little wing, that you never have to witness yourself get lost to desires which aren't yours, that you never have to become reduced to a mere entity within your own mind, clawing at a glass wall to break free and take control of yourself once more. Sovereign's control over me is already too great for me to fight back, there is no escape other than death. Inside the terminal over there is all the information I forwarded to Saren," Benezia's face twisted into one that showed agony, as if she were being burned at a stake. With her eyes watering, she looked at Jane, "Take care of my daughter, commander. She is but a Maiden, caught up in events that are far beyond her capabilities to tackle on her own," the Matriarch turned once more to Liara, "turn away, little wing. My suffering needs to end."

Liara looked down to the ground, still holding her mother in Stasis. The Matriarch closed her eyes and Shepard wondered what she would do. With a sudden distortion of light around her head, an audible crack came from within Benezia's head and purple blood trickled from her nose.

Shepard dropped her arm to her side, as did Kaidan and Liara, setting the matriarch down gently. Liara walked over to her mother's body and held it in silence as Shepard walked to the console the Matriarch had pointed out. There were files reporting a study made on the Rachni. A quick skim through them revealed that Binary Helix, the company that owned the Peak 15 facility, had found a Rachni ship drifting in space. An egg that had been held in cryogenic suspension was recovered and hatched to attempt cloning the resulting specimen to make warfare assets but it turned out it was a Rachni queen. Once the queen had reached maturity, it started laying eggs and its offspring were separated from the mother to attempt militarising them. That experiment failed due to the offspring going berserk irremediably. The report concluded on a section written by Benezia herself, where she stated that from the queen's mind and genetic memory she was able to obtain the location of a Relay that had been previously lost due to a supernova, shifting its position in space.

Shepard downloaded the reports. _If this was sent to Saren, then this Mu Relay has to have some kind of importance._ Once the download was complete, she glanced at the Rachni queen in her containment chamber and her muscles locked up instantly. Without being able to protest, she felt like a hand gripped the back of her neck firmly and a choir of voices filled her mind, "No alarm is necessary, we are merely communicating."

 _Are you the queen?_

"Yes, we are the last of the Rachni. We stand before you and ask you, will you free us? Will you let us fade into the silence of memory once more?"

 _Your offspring were hostile. How can you prove we won't have to eventually put you down again?_

"Our children have had their minds destroyed by the men who sought to harness them for tools of war. The eggs separated from us were left alone, with no songs to hear from their creator. We have learned from the mistakes of our ancestors. Hostility is not the course we will take and we will sing to our children songs of peace. We would seek hiding where we could teach our children harmony. If they learn, maybe we could leave our solitude in a future."

 _I won't destroy your entire race. You'll go free._

"You will give us a chance to compose anew? We will remember. We will sing of your forgiveness to our children. We would ask of you, however, that you silence our broken children. They are beyond saving. End their suffering."

Shepard felt her muscles relaxing and the invisible hand left her neck. She turned around to regard her squad, "The reports show the Rachni's hostility is due to the eggs being taken from the queen. About the queen's fate, I will not commit genocide. She will go free."

Wrex's eyes widened, then he clenched his fists at his sides, "Millions of krogan died to put these things down in the past Shepard. We will not do it again."

Liara had let go of her mother during Shepard's conversation to stand by the squad, "What will become of the rest of the rachni? They're bound to be somewhere in the facility."

"The queen asked us to kill them, they've been mentally broken since they were born. I don't plan on searching the facility for every last one of them, though." Shepard pondered this as she went to the console and linked up with her omnitool. Studying the lab blueprints, she found a way the containment mechanism could release the queen. She brought Tali over to check on her operating system bypass, and when the quarrian was satisfied, the command was executed. The containment cage rose on hydraulic pillars to a tube that connected to a separate garage on the backside of the facility. Glancing back once, the Rachni queen left the laboratories. As Shepard turned around, a siren began to blare,

 _WARNING, WARNING, CONTAINMENT FAILURE OF KEY SPECIMEN. EMERGENCY SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE IN ACTION. T MINUS TEN MINUTES TO SELF DESTRUCT._

Jane could feel adrenaline begin to course through her veins as she murmured, "Shit. ALRIGHT, EVERYONE BACK TO THE GARAGE. Tali, are we in range of the radio tower?"

The team exited the labs and bolted for the tram. Tali ran alongside Shepard, shouting, "Not until we get off the tram on the other side, commander!"

"Alright."

Once the squad reached the tram, Tali interfaced with the controls and sped it up as much as the rail's materials could tolerate. They all paced around the tram, everyone feeling the same uneasiness of being boxed in. Suddenly, a clang came from the roof, then the squad heard feet scuttling along the whole ceiling and finally, the hissing of acid on metal. Shepard didn't need to give the order for everyone to draw their guns and point at the roof but the noise stopped just as suddenly as it began, except for the continuous hissing of the acid.

Soon enough, the acid made a small hole in the roof, which widened to almost a meter in diameter before it stopped expanding. A human corpse was tossed in and the whole squad followed its fall with their guns except for Wrex. Right after it, two Rachni jumped in. The first one was shot by Wrex, the tightly packed cloud of metal shavings piercing the chitinous shell, killing it before it touched the ground. The second one jumped straight for Ashley before she could shoot, pinning her against one of the walls. Williams screamed in pain as her assault rifle began firing between herself and the Rachni. The combined fire of the squad killed it quickly, and Ashley crawled away from it, leaving the gun half embedded into the corpse. Her arm was broken, and she cradled it, bringing it back to a more normal shape. Shepard knelt in a corner and began trying to interface with the radio tower, hoping the storm might have subsided enough to contact Joker.

…

"And that's when you responded and arrived to rescue us! Our saviour!" Shepard smiled mockingly at Nicolas as he shook his head, looking down at his almost complete foot, "Once we had arrived at the Normandy, I was notified that the facility blew up, leaving nothing behind."

"I'm beginning to feel Joker might've had some inside information on Peak 15."

"The guy's as sharp as they come. Anyways, I'm going to go talk to Liara. What happened couldn't have been easy for her." Shepard squeezed Nicolas' shoulder lightly as she stood up, "See you at dinner."

"See you, Jane!" Nicolas called out as he began tightening the screws on all the toes and joints systematically. He then whispered, "Thanks for reading out the instructions, Hal."

"My pleasure, Nicolas."

…

Standing up, he looked down at his repaired leg. The new foot shone slightly brighter than the rest of it, "Huh. Better paint it, then."

There was still an hour to go before the mess sergeant would have dinner ready, so Nicolas decided to see if Garrus was still in the medbay. It was weird to be able to walk normally again, the uneven footing had become almost second nature to him after a day and a half of limping. The mess hall was empty, aside from Kaidan, who stood at a terminal, going through the extranet. Nicolas decided not to bother him and turned left into the medbay to find Garrus picking up his off-duty clothes from a drawer beside him.

"This hospital gown thing is the most uncomfortable thing you humans have created."

"What and you turians go to the doctor buck naked?" Nicolas chuckled.

" _Buck_?"

"It's a human way of saying naked, nevermind."

Garrus shook his head, "Whatever. And yes if you're recovering from an operation. What good is a gown if you won't be leaving the hospital anyway?"

"Well you guys have those plates on you so it's like you're wearing armour all the time," Nicolas stopped smiling at the thought of Garrus' wound, "How's your arm, by the way?"

The turian widened his mandibles into what Nicolas had started interpreting as a smile, "It's fine. Kind of weird to not be able to feel the plates, and they look kind of odd. Don't you think?" Garrus pulled his sleeve back and the plates on his arm shone a porcelain white.

"Look _kind of_ _odd?_ " Nicolas wanted to laugh but he saw the turian eyeing him and chose to be tactful, "I mean, you'd really only notice if you were looking for them."

Garrus scoffed, the smile still on his face, "Yeah, way to save that one, broom head."

Nicolas winked before asking, "So you gonna be dropping by dinner?"

"Yeah, I just have to change into my civvies. You?"

"I'm gonna give these a paintjob, the shine's uneven," the human said, tapping his metallic knees.

"Ooohh paint Blastos and Teenage Mutant Commando Varrens on 'em."

Nicolas left the medbay laughing and headed for the garage. When the elevator doors closed he heard the turian's chuckles leaving the medbay.

Everyone was on their usual spot in the garage, except for Garrus and Ashley. The gunnery chief was put off duty by Chakwas after mending her arm. It had been broken in five places by the Rachni attack while leaving Peak15. Walking over to the fabricator beside the weapon's bench, Nicolas felt Wrex's eyes on him. When he had sat down on the bench and removed his legs for painting, the krogan spoke up, "You never answered my question, whelp."

"What question, Wrex?" Nicolas slid one of his legs under the fabricator printing module and loaded up painting instructions from his omnitool.

"Why you had come to get us despite being told not to." Wrex smiled when he saw Nicolas' expression change, "Believe it or not, I read the reports, even the pilot's."

"You sure read a lot for a Battlemaster," Nicolas murmured to himself as his first leg was painted.

The krogan couldn't stand off-handed comments. He huffed and continued, "You make habbits when you live for hundreds of years, human. Don't evade the question."

"What do you want me to say, Wrex? That I was worried something might happen to Shepard? Yeah, that's why I decided to go."

Wrex chuckled as the fabricator finished painting Nicolas' second leg, "Shepard is too much for you, whelp."

"Fuck you, Wrex."

The krogan scoffed as Nicolas reattached his legs, now coloured matte black. As he finished testing the prostheses to make sure they were connected properly, the krogan left his pillar and started walking towards the elevator, "Dinner should be served soon, finish putting your legs on quickly, whelp."

Nicolas jogged to make it in time to squeeze between the closing doors and scowled at Wrex, who payed little attention to the human, a smug smile on his face.

The dinner table was calm and quiet. Much of the ground team was tired out, and both Ashley and Garrus were a bit subdued by pain medication. Shepard, Kaidan and Tali were the most talkative. Apparently the mess sergeant had made an especially acceptable dinner that day, even though to the rest of the ground team it was practically regular rations. At one point, Garrus' omnitool dinged. Tali looked at him as she detached the nutrient tube from her mask, "It's not nice to have your omnitool on ring at the table."

Liara giggled at the remark, but Garrus' face went from slightly very exhausted to barely controlled panic.

"I've got- this is- excuse me." Garrus stood up and left his tray with the mess sergeant in a blur. He held his tube ration with his teeth as he left the mess hall typing messages at an alarming rate on his omnitool.

Nicolas looked over Liara's shoulder at the run-walking turian, chewing with his mouth open, "What's gotten into him?"

Shepard spoke up, "He'll tell us if something's up. Don't worry about it."

There was a loud _clang_ from the elevator as it started descending towards the garage. Nicolas looked from the elevator and then to Shepard, still chewing, this time an unimpressed look on his face, "Don't worry about it?"

"They're always like this…" Ashley murmured to Kaidan, which shook his head.

Shepard was within earshot, however. She gave a sharp look at the gunnery chief, "We talked about this, chief."

At this, Ashley straightened up on her chair and spoke softly, "yes, ma'am. Sorry, ma'am."

Later, Nicolas handed in his empty tray to the mess sergeant and walked to the elevator. Garrus hadn't come back up, and the night shift was due soon. As he input the command to descend, Jane boarded the elevator and stood beside him.

"Gonna check on Garrus?" Nicolas fiddled with a cigarette pack in his pocket as he shuffled to his sides.

"Yeah, you?"

"Same. He's not the type to lose his cool over anything."

Shepard nodded and they both exited the elevator into the garage to find it empty. They scanned the deck until their eyes were caught by a sudden burst of blue sparks under the mako. Nicolas chuckled to himself, muttering a little _I should've known_ as the two approached the vehicle.

"Hey Garrus," Shepard squatted beside one of the wheels, calling into the darkness below.

"Commander," Garrus peeked out from under the vehicle, a plasma cutter in his hand. His mandibles were spread in a smile, but his jaw was shifting to the sides. He was gnashing his teeth.

"You have a moment to talk?"

Garrus looked back to where he had been working, as if to remember what he was doing to continue later, before emerging from under the vehicle. His right arm glistened under the garage's LED lights, "I meant to talk to you after you were done with dinner. You can stay too, broomhead."

"What's on your mind, cyborg?" Nicolas smiled at the turian, which scoffed and tapped the human's legs as he got up.

"I think I better start from the beginning. Two years ago, C-sec was running an investigation on a sudden boom in the flow of illegal funds. I got tasked with checking out the organ market to see if the black credits were because of a new development there. There was this clinic that belonged to a salarian doctor. All his documentation for the clinic and himself were ok, but we turians can always _hear,_ " Garrus tapped the side of his head for emphasis, "if someone is hiding something. I brought his employees in for questioning at C-sec headquarters. The all started out alright, but as I questioned one turian, he got really nervous and then he started bleeding for no apparent reason," Shepard and Baker's eyebrows went up in curiosity as Garrus continued, "Thing is, Dr. Saleon had started cloning organs inside his employees, letting the host grow them until they were ready to be removed. If an organ was damaged or unfit for sale, he would just leave it in, putting the victim's lives in danger."

"Shit," Nicolas breathed out as Shepard started to frown without her noticing.

Garrus continued, "Saleon found out we knew before we could get to him. He escaped the citadel on his ship, holding many of his victims hostage. I called for citadel defence forces to shoot him down, but C-sec cancelled my request _because the ship was too close to the station._ "

"Well, it goes without saying that civilian lives should never be endangered, Vakarian," Shepard put her commander face on, evaluating Garrus' take on the story.

"Many more civilian lives were put in danger by letting _him_ live." Garrus' tone had started angry, but he was done composing himself by the end of the sentence. _Turian emotional training sure runs deep_ , Jane thought to herself.

"Did you ever find Saleon?" Nicolas asked.

"No. He was quick to change ships and his name. None of the hostages were ever found. But I have a couple of informants from when I was back in C-sec, and one of them just got a tip for a new supply of dirt cheap organs. The dealer is a Salarian that goes by the name of Dr. Heart, who's operating in the Kepler Verge. I can't be 100% sure that it's Saleon, but it's worth looking into," the turian turned to his commander, "I was going to ask for a period of leave if we passed nearby the Citadel, commander-"

Shepard raised her hand to stop Garrus mid-sentence, "This Dr. Heart is selling organs on the black market. The Kepler Verge is on the way to Virmire anyway, so whether he really is Dr. Saleon or not is irrelevant. We're going after Heart, Garrus, don't worry about taking any leave."

"Thank you, commander. Here is the location of Saleon's ship," he forwarded the file to Shepard before scratching the back of his neck, "I, uh, I should finish calibrating the, uh… the… suspension! So that Wrex doesn't make the mako's belly touch ground." Garrus nodded several times as he got down on his back and slid under the ground vehicle.

Nicolas shifted his weight between the balls of his feet and his heels, waiting for something else to happen. Shepard smiled at the spot where she last saw the turian, then turned to her VI specialist, "Wanna go with me to tell Joker?"

Nicolas nodded as they headed for the elevator. Once the doors closed, he turned to face his commander, "Why are we going to Virmire anyhow?"

"We got sent there by the council. They had a group of spies investigate Saren's operations and wound up stuck over there so we have to go see what they found and bring them back."

"See, this is why I don't read the reports, you explain everything so clearly." Nicolas smiled as they left the elevator and headed for the cockpit.

Jane gave him an I-know-you're-joking smile before pushing him lightly on the shoulder, "talking about reports, you really have to work on your spelling."

"The dictation program doesn't understand me half the time! I'm sorry if the Eden Prime accent is too thick."

Hal spoke in Nicolas' translator, "You _do_ have phonetic hiccups occasionally."

Joker was at the cockpit, as usual. It looked like he was looking at some vids but he closed them before either Jane or Nicolas could make out what they were.

"Commander! We have an insubordinate in our midst!" Joker exclaimed as he swayed around to face the approaching pair.

"He's been given a warning against not following protocol, Joker. I've got it under control." Shepard patted the pilot's shoulder and stopped beside him to look out the viewport.

Jeff looked over his shoulder at the commander and back at Nicolas before winking, "You mean, you've got _him_ under control."

Jane smiled, her back to both men, "Alright, that's enough, Joker. I came here to discuss a little detour we'll be doing."

Swivelling back around, Joker brought up the current trajectory the Normandy was taking. It was only eight hours to Virmire at that point, "Sure thing, where are we going?"

"Here." Shepard forwarded the location to Joker's omnitool and the pilot got to work calculating the new travel time.

"We'll be there within the hour. Then we'll be at Virmire by noon, tomorrow. Is this detour gonna be a night-time mission?"

"Yes, but we'll take a small squad. I bet Vakarian and Baker won't have a problem with going to bed late tonight."

"Hey, I need my beauty sleep, you know!" Nicolas piped up from behind Joker's chair.

"Then sleep in tomorrow. As long as you're operational by 1000 hrs tomorrow, I don't mind."

"How come the civilian gets extra sleeping hours, commander?"

"You have nothing to complain about! I've seen you sleeping at the helm at least three times since Anderson passed the Normandy to me."

Joker answered with a grunt and closed the interface. Putting all the panels on standby, he dimmed the cockpit lights to let the outside shine in.

Scientists still hadn't been able to explain exactly what it was that the people inside a ship saw when they travelled at FTL. It was speculated that the front end of the ship fused sub-atomic particles together by impact force, creating rapidly decaying atoms that would emit photons and… the too long didn't read explanation was that beautiful lights came out.

The trio looked out through the viewport at the relativistic wonder in silence. Jane stepped back from the side of Joker's chair to stand beside Nicolas. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the lights shining off her face. He'd always thought of Shepard as the great N7 soldier and nothing more, but during his time in the Normandy, Nicolas realized first impressions didn't mean much. There were the obvious admirable traits that were in plain sight, like her resolve or her moral compass, but the way she respected her crew and how she went out of her way to aid the ones close (or relatively close) to her made her so much more admirable than what he had come to know from the vids. He felt the urge to move his hand to the side and touch hers but decided to look at the time on his omnitool instead.

Nicolas cleared his throat, "Half an hour 'til we arrive. I'd better suit up and tell Big Bird to do the same."

Jane stayed looking out the viewport as Nicolas turned around, heading for the garage, "Yeah, I'll see you two here at the airlock."

* * *

 **So that was chapter 14. I hope you enjoyed it. I tried to put some action into this mostly conversational chapter. I hope I did Benezia's part justice, I had been putting off that part for months now hahaha.**

 **Let me know what you think of the chapter, the story, the characters, whatever! I love feedback!**

 **:D**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15! Hope you like it!**

 **All characters, settings and themes belong to bioware, no copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

A slight tremor shook the Normandy as it slowed down to sub-relativistic speeds. The sound of metal clasps closing on ceramic plates echoed on the walls of the garage as Garrus and Nicolas stood armouring up in silence. The turian checked his weapons swiftly before holstering them, his movements like that of a robot. _Pick up, expand, check alignment, collapse, holster, repeat._ He was done and walking towards the elevator before Nicolas had even finished checking his pistol. As the human started checking his rifle, he thought he heard the tick-tock of an analogue clock. Holstering the rifle, he turned around towards the elevator to find it was Garrus, tapping his gloved talons on the 'open door' button on the elevator.

"You done, broom head?"

Nicolas was put off by the passive aggressiveness, but kept his mouth shut. It was, after all, a point in time that Garrus had been waiting for over two years. The ride up seemed to be eternal, especially with the turian tapping his foot on the floor every half second. Nicolas felt his ammo pouch to check if he had brought his cigarettes, patting it with satisfaction when he was sure they were there. He cleared his throat and looked at Garrus, the turian's mandibles pressed tightly against his face and his eyes darting from side to side, probably evaluating different scenarios in his mind. Not really knowing what to say, Nicolas sighed with relief when the doors opened and Garrus walked briskly towards the cockpit.

Looking to his right, he saw Shepard emerging from her quarters, fully armoured and helmet in hand. "You ready, Baker?"

"Always am, commander. Garrus is waiting upstairs."

Shepard sighed, "I'm not sure whether Garrus is gonna be alright after this. We've gone through a lot of bad the last few days."

"He needs this, though. At least to get closure."

Jane nodded as they walked together up the steps to the CIC. The lights all around the Normandy had been dimmed for the night shift. Even the galaxy map illuminated noticeably less, and the walkway to the cockpit was illuminated by only two holographic displays and small glowlights on the floor. There were no FTL lights flashing outside the viewport, only a sea of stars against the pitch black vacuum. Garrus' figure blocked some of the stars. The turian was waiting, standing behind Joker's chair. He glanced over his shoulder at the approaching pair and tilted his chin towards a particularly bright star outside.

"That bright one is the MSV Fedele. Joker says we've been in stealth mode since we left FTL, so we should be able to reach the ship without being detected by the time we get into the airlock."

"Let's go, then," Shepard turned on her heel and paced to the Normandy's exit, putting her helmet on.

The other two did the same and they entered the airlock when Joker announced, "Docking… now."

There is always a moment of silence between the ending of the airlock cycle and the actual opening of the blast doors. Garrus filled it with the sound of his gloves' rubbing against themselves as he clenched his fists. The door opened to a dark corridor, illuminated by nothing more than emergency lights along the floor. Garrus switched his visor to IR mode, and Nicolas and Shepard did the same using their rifles' telescopes.

"No heat signatures within twenty meters," Garrus whispered, his radio activated permanently, "Where is he keeping the victims?"

Shepard took a step forward and saw the turian fall back behind her. The corridor they were in had six doors on either side, leading to cargo compartments resembling large containers. They searched the first two compartments of the ship fruitlessly and the total darkness in the modules made it impossible to navigate without the IR displays. Nicolas was surprised at Garrus' shear efficiency. He swept every corner of the rooms q _uickly_.

Walking back towards the corridor after the third compartment, Nicolas tripped on a crate, making a loud thud and shouting a quick yelp. Garrus, nervous as he was, drew his pistol with his free hand, activated the flashlight function and pointed straight at Nicolas' head in one swift motion. Seeing it was only Nicolas, he lowered his handgun and his eyes caught a glint of red on the floor.

"Guys, turn on your flashlights, please." His flanging voice trembled as he illuminated more of the floor.

The two humans activated their helmet lights. Shepard's eyes widened at the floor's paintjob. The crates were also coated in splotches of dark red, purple, green and yellow blood. Garrus looked around assessing what each of his squad mates lit up, "Don't take off your helmets."

The squad went back to the hall, following a trail of a mixture of different coloured bloods. It led to a third compartment. Again, there were no heat signatures. As they entered, they saw the trail end at the back end of the room. Shepard walked up to where it finished: a big container with a small analogue lock. She used her omnitool to flash produce a hot blade and melted the lock off. Checking that her squad was at a distance behind her, she peeked inside, slamming the lid back down immediately. _He left the empty corpses here._

"What's in the container, commander?" Garrus tilted his head to the side as he asked the question.

Shepard turned around slowly, her hands shaking and her eyes visible through the visor, wide open.

Garrus insisted, "What's in the container, Shepard?" He took a step forward, his tone becoming more urgent as he repeated, "What's in the container?"

Nicolas stepped behind Garrus, placing a hand on the turian's shoulder. If Shepard reacted like that, then Garrus would be worse. His hand was shrugged away quickly, though, and the turian stalked forward towards Shepard, "WHAT'S IN THERE, SHEPARD?!"

"Vakarian, stand down!" Shepard snapped, making an effort to not let her voice crack, "There are corpses in there. You don't need to see them."

Garrus stopped dead in his tracks. He looked over the commander's shoulder at the crate, then back at her, "Is it bad?"

"Yes."

The turian looked down at the ground, breathing deeply. He knew what happened to organ traffic victims, he'd seen those a couple of times during his time in C-sec. His mind brought up images of corpses with caved in torsos and boneless limbs, bloodied up and mangled from sloppy extractions. Even after the victim had been hollowed out, the skin would be kept for whatever any sick buyer might want to do with it. Garrus let his arms hang, his assault rifle dangling from his left hand, "We're too late, then."

"Saleon's got to be here still. Maybe he's at the cockpit." Nicolas offered from behind Garrus.

Shepard nodded and started walking towards the corridor once more, Garrus following close behind.

"I've got a heat signature," Nicolas announced as they neared the cockpit. The figure looked like it was sitting. Strafing to the side, he saw that it seemed like it was with its back towards the door. There was a colder area on the figure's thigh, "Whoever it is, he might be armed."

Shepard took the front and walked up to the door, flanked by the rest of the squad. It opened to reveal the pilot's seat with its back towards them. They circled around and found a Salarian, sleeping. Garrus prodded his shoulder with the barrel of his handgun until he stirred. With drowsy eyes, he regarded his new companions.

The salarian smacked his lips before speaking, awkwardly slowly for a salarian, "You here to get the merchandise?"

Garrus' eyes opened wide, almost as if they would pop out. He grabbed the head of the salarian and smashed it once against the console in front of him. He pulled the head back and the salarian gasped, blood gushing from his nose, his eyes darting between each of the new faces. Garrus tightened his grip on the salarian, drawing blood from where his fingers were digging in. As the alien started screaming, Garrus smashed him into the console again, muffling the screams. Shepard touched Garrus' shoulder, making him stop. She stepped to the side of the pilot's chair and asked, "Dr. Saleon?"

"Dr. Heart! I have no idea who you have me mixed up with! Just take the organs and go! Wagh!" His face was smashed into the console once more, the electronics screeching in protest.

Garrus chuckled, his eyes still wide, "You can't expect me to fall for your lies, Saleon. I'd recognize your face anywhere."

Realization that he was screwed hit Saleon, and his mouth opened and closed as he tried to find something to say. Green blood flowed from his mouth, a tooth floating in it fell of and clacked on the floor.

Shepard spoke up once more, "You're going to come with us to answer for your crimes."

Saleon's eyes narrowed at that and his hand started creeping towards his gun and he hissed, "I'm not going anywhere."

Garrus saw his move in time and pressed the barrel of his pistol hard against the salarian's face, between his eyes. This stopped his hand from moving, and he went back to looking at each one of the squadmates, half a second for each.

"Do we take him forcibly, commander?" Garrus asked Shepard without looking away from the salarian's face.

Shepard thought it over, "No, Garrus. I'll deal with him. He doesn't deserve a trial, and revenge kills mess with your mind, Vakarian. Wait outside with Nicolas."

Before letting go of Saleon, Garrus smashed his face into the console one last time, holding it there, earning a pained groan and a faint crack before the salarian started thrashing about, and gargling screams came from his bleeding mouth. Shepard glanced at Nicolas and pushed the turian off Saleon, "That's enough!"

Garrus seemed surprised at himself before leaving for the corridor, hands shaking. Jane looked at Nicolas, a worried expression on her face and he pursed his lips as he followed Garrus out, stealing a glance back at Jane. The door shut behind them and muffled begging and screaming came from inside the cockpit before a loud bang ended them. Nicolas pulled out the pack of universal cigarettes he had with him and offered one to the turian, who accepted it immediately. Their helmets hissed as they removed them and the crackling of thessian tobacco filled the corridor as they both lit the cigarettes with their respective omnitools. Shepard emerged from the cockpit, a smudge of green blood on her visor.

"Let's blow this ship up, it's best if no one finds it ever again." Shepard spoke softly.

The turian nodded as he blew a thick cloud of smoke out, "The fuel tanks are halfway down the corridor, under the floor panels," He walked towards the point he referred to and disappeared into the dark, the tip of his cigarette bobbing up and down in the pitch black background.

Shepard turned off her helmet's speakers and radioed Nicolas, "I'm worried about him."

"How so?" Nicolas blew more smoke out. He saw the blinking lights of a remote controlled grenade switch on in the distance before turning to look at Jane.

"Garrus is always more collected, and he was C-sec. I never thought he'd get that sadistic on the doctor."

Nicolas typed a note on his omnitool and showed it to Shepard, _He's been chasing this guy for years. I say he was quite collected._

Shepard pursed her lips, "That was anything _but_ collected. I'm keeping an eye on him."

 _I can talk to him on the Normandy, if you want._

"Don't worry about it, I'll talk to him myself."

Throwing the cigarette away, Nicolas nodded before tilting his head in the direction Garrus went, beckoning Shepard to head back. Garrus was waiting at the airlock, the butt of his cigarette smoking at his feet. They entered the Normandy wordlessly and once Joker got the order to leave, Garrus set off the two minute timer to blow the MSV Fedele.

Not a soul was around to see it explode unceremoniously into a dim cloud of debris.

…

The garage deck was silent. The lights had been turned off and the whole deck was in darkness except for a lamp that shone on the weapons bench. Garrus stood there, disassembling his rifle, making an effort to keep his hands from shaking. As he detached the components, he laid out every part neatly on the table, until no two components were together. From one of the pouches on his armour (which he still hadn't removed), he produced a small fine cloth, and he began wiping every piece. The silence was soon disturbed by the sound of the cargo elevator descending. Garrus didn't stop working as he recognized the sound of Shepard's gait.

When she was close enough to hear clearly, he asked, "Came to check that I didn't go mad, commander?"

Shepard hesitated then walked to stand behind the turian, "I prefer calling it checking if you're ok, Garrus."

"I'm fine. I just thought we should've taken him to C-sec." he shrugged as he finished wiping a piece and continued, "But I know the citadel's the other way. I guess killing him straight away was the best thing to do."

"You wanted to take him to C-sec? I don't think I have to remind you that they don't give out death penalties in Citadel space."

"I'm not a supporter of the death penalty."

"You're not? I thought that might have been some form of retribution in your eyes." Shepard tilted her head to the side.

"What retribution?" Garrus turned around and stared at his commander, his eyes glowing like those of a cat in the dark, "What, would they cut him open and let him die of blood loss like he did to the victims? No, they'd give him an injection and he'd fall asleep all cozy," he lifted his arms and let them fall to his side, the armour plates clacking together, "What did we do? We just shot him in the head. _Bang. Quick. Easy. Painless._ You know what the victims would have _given_ to go out that way? It's just unfair. That's why I tortured him before you killed him."

Shepard chewed on the inside of her cheek for a moment, choosing her words wisely, "I see your point Garrus. But know that I let you do that because this was technically your mission. From now on, we do thigs my way, understood?" Garrus nodded at that and Jane let her shoulders relax. She would've hated to have to leave him at the Citadel for defiance.

"Certainly, commander," Garrus looked back and forth from Jane to the weapons bench, "… I, uh, have to finish this, then I'll go to sleep. See you tomorrow?"

Shepard nodded. She turned on her heel and headed for the cargo elevator.

…

Shepard sat alone at the empty mess hall, thinking of the suffering that had transpired in the walls of that god forsaken ship. She would have to wake up in seven hours, so she went to boil water for some tea when the door to the bathroom opened and footsteps approached the mess hall. Garrus had gone to sleep shortly after she had sat down at the mess hall, Wrex slept in the garage, against that pillar he liked so much. Tali had turned in hours ago, so it could only be…

"You boiling some water for me too?" Nicolas' voice came from the other side of the hall.

Shepard looked at the boiler, then towards Nicolas, then at the boiler again. "I- I- yeah!" She lied as she switched it off to pour extra water in.

Nicolas chuckled as he searched around the kitchen, opening drawers systematically. Shepard eyed him as steam rose from the boiler once again, "What are you looking for?"

"We're bound to have fruits somewhere, right?" Nicolas opened one last drawer before heading for the cooling unit.

"You haven't noticed that we have fruit at every breakfast?"

"Yeah but that doesn't mean that I know where they _are_ ," he complained as he stuck his head in the big closet that was the cooling unit, "Ah! Found them!" He brought an orange out, tossing and catching it leisurely, "Want some orange peel?"

Shepard arched an eyebrow, "The trash can is right there, Baker."

Nicolas stared blankly at Shepard for a moment, then cackled once, "For the water, Jane! Orange peel water helps you sleep!" He found a fruit knife and got to peeling the orange, "It's an Eden Prime thing."

"In that case, I could go for some right now."

"Been a long day, hasn't it?" Nicolas asked as he dropped some orange peels into two cups, which Shepard filled up with the steaming water.

"Yeah. Liara seems to be alright. She talked a lot to Garrus after Noveria, but I feel the whole Saleon thing really fucked up something in our turian."

Nicolas blew on his cup, "You mean by how he reacted? Saleon was a sick bastard, I say he got off easy for what he did."

"But an ex-cop wouldn't torture someone like that."

"It wasn't just anyone that Garrus got medieval on, Jane. Garrus had been after the salarian for years, and you saw what he did to the victims."

"You know what was in the container?"

"I know Saleon was an organ trafficker. I can imagine what was in there, and Garrus probably knew too."

Jane sipped from her cup before sighing, "I guess you're right. What worries me most is that he'll lose control in the next missions."

"I'd say you don't have to worry about that. You know how disciplined turians are. He won't do anything unless you tell him to from now on."

"Yeah. We'll be at Virmire relatively early tomorrow. I should go," Shepard blew on her cup before turning to leave.

"You're not finishing your cup here?"

"No, I have to finish the report on this last thing we did, then I'll just turn in," Jane sighed, her exhaustion becoming more apparent by the second.

"Sleep well, then. Try not to dwell on everything that happened today too much, you saved a whole species after all," Nicolas winked as Shepard's face lit up a bit remembering the Rachni queen, "Goodnight, Jane," He said as she started walking back to her room, leaving him at the mess hall.

Hal spoke up once the door to her cabin closed, "You should get some sleep too."

"Alright, mother hen. Just let me finish this and brush my teeth. What have you been up to anyway? You've been awful quiet since I finished fixing my leg."

"Oh, you know, this and that. I noticed that your prostheses have unnecessary spaces filled in with titanium. I say unnecessary because those parts aren't under stress the great majority of the time, so filling them up is redundant," It seemed like Hal was waiting for the opportunity to voice this.

"You suggesting I drill holes in my shins?"

"Well that's the first step! Then you could put stuff in there."

"Like what?" Nicolas sipped on his cup, a frown forming on his face, wondering what Hal was going to say next.

"Maybe a concealed weapon."

"I don't know if they make hole-shaped guns, Hal," Nicolas smiled at Hal's vague response.

"Well that's what I'm on right now. Shut up, _you_ asked me what I was up to."

Nicolas' eyebrows arched at the AI's offended tone, "I was just messing with you, Hal. I bet if you keep at it, you're gonna make the most dangerous legs in the galaxy."

"And to think I was made to hack ships… Anyways, go to sleep. I can't concentrate on my simulations with you talking."

"Alright, alright, I'll keep my mouth shut." Nicolas left his cup at the dishwashing unit and headed for the bathroom.

* * *

 **Sooooooo that was chapter 15! In game, Saleon's subjects were practically creepers, and I had no clue how that fitted into the fact that the guy was an organ trafficker, so I changed it!**

 **I hope you enjoyed it! If you wanna leave a review or a PM, go ahead! I love me some feedback!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16! Hope you like it!**

 **All characters, settings and themes belong to bioware, no copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

"So, Hal, tell me about Virmire." Nicolas squeezed toothpaste onto his toothbrush and got to work as Hal spoke into his ear.

"The coooodeeex saaayyyyss…" Hal drew out the syllables as he searched for the information, "That it's a lush world at the frontier between the Attican Traverse and the Terminus Systems. Its vast seas and orbital position on the inner life zone have created a wide equatorial band of humid, tropical terrain. Only the political instability of the region has impeded efforts at colonization. It's got a day length of 22 earth hours, atmospheric pressures of 0.9 atmospheres at sea level and an average of 32 degrees Celsius."

Nicolas spat the toothpaste foam out before speaking, "What about gravity?"

"The gravity at the surface is 0.86 g."

He hmmmed, precalculating how he should modify the aim assistance of his rifle. The door to the bathroom whooshed open as Garrus and Kaidan walked in. The biotic pulled a tube of paste out along with his toothbrush and floss, while Garrus produced a cylindrical indigo tube from his personal storage unit. Kaidan and Nicolas watched closely as the groggy turian proceeded to bite on it with an initial _angh_.

"Do you sleep with that visor on?" Nicolas asked.

"More importantly, what the hell are you chewing on?" Kaidan eyed the turian before starting to brush his teeth.

Garrus stopped biting to look at them, trying to blink away the lingering sleep. He became aware of the light blue HUD shining over his left eye and nodded at Nicolas. He then gave Kaidan a blank stare before answering, "This? It's a toothlog. We bite on it and it cleans the teeth. What the hell do you have?"

"A toothbrush. We put paste on it and it cleans the teeth." Kaidan imitated Garrus' ' _isn't it obvious?'_ tone.

The turian's brow plates furrowed for a moment before the weird design made sense, "Ah, it wouldn't be comfortable for me. The mandibles, you see…"

Kaidan nodded, giving him an interested _hmmmm_ as Nicolas turned around to armour up and take a nap before they arrived at Virmire. His onyx suit was scratched up and dusty with dirt from more than one planet. The chest plate had been replaced with one of a different colour since it had been shattered on Grissom. Having spent an important portion of his time on the mission _in_ the suit, he felt more comfortable in it than in normal clothes. It was warm, dry, form fitting, and the helmet was perfect for napping since the outside noise could be shut off.

As the HUD on the helmet flickered to life, Nicolas sat down, resting his back against a structural pillar next to Wrex's (who was also sleeping) and turned on the built-in noise cancelling.

A foot tapped on his arm, waking him an hour or so later. He shook his head as his eyes adjusted to the sterile lighting of the garage. His HUD highlighted a figure with two toes, labelling it as Tali.

"Briefing is gonna begin soon. Get up," Tali tapped Nicolas with her foot once more before he grunted and stood slowly, "You might want to clean the drool off the inside of your visor."

Nicolas unsealed his helmet and inspected the inside. Tali giggled when he found nothing.

"What do you do when you drool on the inside of _your_ helmet? I mean, you do sleep in your suit, right?" He asked as they walked to the elevator.

"We have a flushing mechanism," Tali looked over her shoulder at Nicolas as she pressed a button on her faceplate, opening a little orifice near the one where Tali ate from, "Cleans out all contaminants within the mask."

Nicolas' mind drifted back to Seesa flushing out blood, then he thought about the Langdon. _It seems like it was so long ago, yet it's only been a month._ He made a mental note to send her a message once they got back from Virmire as he followed Tali out of the elevator and up the stairs to the briefing room. The whole ground team was there, already sitting down, except Shepard, who had given her seat to Joker.

Activating her omnitool, Shepard brought up a map on the vidscreen showing a small archipelago covered in red circular areas. "Ok, people. I trust you've all read the initial mission briefing. Now that we've arrived, our scans have shown us a less than favourable situation," she pointed at the red areas and continued, "Around the clearing where the Salarian's team's last location was recorded, we have two AA turrets impeding our landing."

Kaidan raised his hand and spoke once Jane nodded at him, "Wouldn't the Normandy's stealth systems allow us to enter the atmosphere and extract the Salarians?"

Shepard looked at Joker and he leaned back on his chair, "The stealth systems would allow us to safely land, yes. But the heat build-up from landing wouldn't allow us to leave in stealth mode, and since we wouldn't be in deep space, it would take too long to actually bleed the heat out. Also, the commander told me this would not only be an extraction, but that you also have to help the Salarian team with whatever they've got to deal with."

Kaidan hummed pensively as Nicolas looked at the map, his brow wrinkling into a frown, he raised his hand, "If the team's on an archipelago, couldn't we land a couple of kilometres out to sea and use the Normandy's turrets to destroy the AA guns?"

Jane raised her eyebrows at the simple idea and turned to Joker who shook his head, "There are cataclysmic storms outside the archipelago - most probably artificial - to block our sensors and make accurate targeting impossible. The Normandy _can_ handle those conditions, but it compromises our shooting capabilities and we can't really afford to miss and give away our location."

Wrex started getting impatient and huffed, "So are you going to tell us the actual plan or what?"

Jane looked back at the map, "We can't keep the stealth systems on for too long, so we'll do a quick drop for a small strike team to take care of one of the turrets. Then we'll deactivate stealth so as to not cook the ship and leave the mako near the other turret with a strafing run to avoid fire. Sensors show that there's tons of geth around these turrets, so for the strike team, I want Tali, Garrus and Nicolas. We'll be having most of their attention what with the Normandy going out of stealth and all, so you should have a bit less resistance, or at least be able to get a pre-emptive strike. In case we lose comms during the mission, I need you guys to either disable the turret permanently or blow it up… or both. As for the mako team, I'm taking Kaidan, Wrex and Liara," Shepard turned to Garrus, "There shouldn't be any funny business going on with the suspension this time, right, Vakarian?"

"Affirmative, commander, no funny business."

Jane smiled before turning to Ashley, "You're obviously sitting this one out, Ash."

The gunnery chief raised her arm on a sling with a nod and a quick 'Yes ma'am!'

"Alright, people, suit up. See you in the garage in an hour. Dismissed."

…

Nicolas stood beside the weapons bench munching on a ration bar as Garrus rummaged around under it. Tali was changing the ammo cubes on her pistol and shotgun, loading tungsten cubes in and storing other blocks into ammo pouches on her lower back. Nicolas started bending over to peak under the table to look at what the turian was doing just when he emerged with his hands overflowing with black tablets the size of the ration bars with a plastic shine to them.

"Eat all your rations now and put these in your pockets instead." Garrus panted before diving back under the bench.

"And what do you want to do with these, throw them at the geth?"

Tali looked up from her handgun and quickly inspected the black tablets before going back to what she was doing, "They're explosives, Nicolas. Read the tags."

Nicolas took his bars from his thigh pouch and dropped them on a corner of the weapons bench. As he chewed on the last piece of the ration he'd opened, he turned over one of the explosives, finding a tag labelled in common human and turian.

INERT EXPLOSIVE PLASTIC PENTAERYTHRITOL TETRANITRATE  
REMOVE ANTIADHESIVE FILM AND ATTACH THIS SIDE

UTILIZE STANDARD ISSUE ALLIANCE GRENADE SET TO REMOTE ASSISTED DETONATION AS DETONATOR

"Huh." Nicolas raised an eyebrow as he finished chewing and opened another ration as he stuffed the explosives into his pouch. Garrus emerged with a couple more and stored them himself, he looked excited, a turian smile spreading his mandibles.

"I think you might want to relax with the explosives, Garrus. It might not even be necessary to destroy the turret." Tali warned as she eyed the expression on the turian's face.

"So say you hack the turret to deactivate it. What would stop the geth from reactivating them? Anyways, explosives training was the most fun part in basic training!" Garrus exclaimed, "I guess quarians never really got to know things that go boom in your ships."

"Yes, holes on the hull generally don't mean anything good." Tali deadpanned as she holstered her pistol. The rest of the team had just arrived on the cargo elevator and they all stood in front of Shepard in a semicircle beside the mako.

It was getting warm within the Normandy as the stealth systems redirected the emitted heat into the hull. Shepard wiped sweat from her brow, as did Alenko and Baker. The rest of the crew had come from warmer planets and didn't mind the temperature yet.

"Alright. Garrus, Tali, Nicolas, the Normandy will drop you at a clearing a kilometre away from the AA gun. Garrus, you've been briefed on your approach, I presume?" Garrus nodded and Jane continued, "Our scans showed the location where most of the geth were concentrated. I uploaded the coordinates to your mission files. Make sure to go unnoticed at least until my team has drawn their attention. As I said, if you aren't able to contact us once the geth have been neutralized, do what you must to make sure those turrets don't come online again."

Garrus gave a smug look at Tali, which she answered with a little kick to his ankle. Shepard continued, "Once the turrets are down, we will rendezvous at the Salarian's last known location."

Joker's voice crackled over the intercom, "Thirty seconds to touchdown commander, brace for blast doors opening."

The back blast doors opened behind the mako, letting the view flood in. The Normandy was flying straight to the drop point, coming in from open sea at low altitude. The crew looked out to the spray of water the Normandy lifted and thousands of lightning strikes at no more than three hundred meters. The ship's kinetic barriers kept the outside winds at bay, and the crew didn't have to endure the deafening thunder cracks, since they were flying at supersonic speeds. At a surprising pace, the Normandy lost its speed and turned around to show the archipelago. A naturally occurring barrier of rocks kept the waves at bay, and the crystalline water below showed white sands that lead to cliffs shooting straight up from the water forming small islands with plateaus not much bigger than the Normandy.

Garrus turned to face Tali and Nicolas, the rest of the team behind them, "This is our stop, broom head. Put your helmet on."

Nicolas obeyed as Garrus did the same, winking at Tali before his face was covered by the black visor. The quarrian snickered as the three approached the edge of the blast door. Nicolas peered down to find a ten metre drop. Garrus scanned the water below with his omnitool and opened his radio channel, "The depth is accurate. We'll contact you when the job is done, commander."

"Good luck, Garrus!" Jane nodded before walking with her team towards the mako's entrance.

"Wait, wasn't Joker gonna touch down?" Nicolas eyed the gap between them and the water's surface bellow.

"No time, Nicolas. We're gonna have to do an orbital drop," Tali laughed, and with a nod to Garrus, she grabbed Nicolas' arm and jumped off, Garrus following close behind.

Hal turned off Nicolas' radio and suit speakers as he began screaming on his way down. The noise of thunder rushed to the three as they left the Normandy's kinetic barriers, and the winds pushed them a bit further out towards the sea. Garrus and Tali quickly twisted in the air to land feet first and Nicolas flayed around, landing in a sitting position. They swam up to the surface and Hal reactivated Nicolas' radio.

"Wasn't that fun?" Tali giggled as they swam towards shallower waters.

"You guys could've told me we'd be diving! I'm just happy the armour's water tight." Nicolas huffed as he went underwater to swim, crawl was a pain as his arms clacked against his helmet with each stroke.

"Yeah, otherwise you would've been dripping water from your ass for a month." Garrus joked as Tali tried in vain to hold back a laugh, "Anyways, we should get moving so we can be in position before Joker drops the mako off, which should be in a couple of minutes. Keep your radios to short range transmission only."

"It'll take us an hour to swim a kilometre in armour, Garrus! How are we- oh…" Nicolas started protesting as he swam before he saw the water become ankle deep a couple of metres ahead of them.

"Yes, we'll be going on foot, luckily. I'm point man, so keep up." Garrus' helmet speakers bubbled as he stood up, water gushing from the collar of his armour. He started sloshing up to one of the cliffs and jogged along the edge where the water was the shallowest, followed closely by Tali and Nicolas.

The three unholstered their guns and shook the water out as they approached the AA turret's location. Garrus stopped at the corner of a cliff and pressed himself to the wall as he brought up a map on his omnitool. There was an open stretch of shallow water that ran for three hundred meters leading up to the building, surely guarded by a considerable amount of geth. Cliffs ran alongside the shallows all the way up to the turret, which was half embedded into them.

"Alright," Garrus muttered as he showed the map to the other two, "Shepard should be touching down at any minute. We don't know for sure if-"

"Shepard to Vakarian." Everybody's radio came to life with Jane's voice, a bit torn by static, "We've touched down near the turret. The mako's sensors show us an armature, five destroyers and at least ten shock troopers. We've already been spotted and are engaging, so hurry up and let us know if something comes up. Shepard out."

Garrus sighed before continuing, "So we should expect a similar amount of forces. Taking them head on by ourselves would be suicide, but if you see the cliffs here, it's possible to flank the geth by going over them. I know I can get there quickly enough, but what about you guys?"

Tali spoke up, "I've never been through this kind of terrain before, so maybe Nicolas would be the better option to take the other flank," she said as she pointed at the cliff Garrus wouldn't be climbing, "I can stay here and provide distraction fire, staying in cover behind the rocks."

Nicolas nodded and handed Tali his rifle. She looked at it and asked, "How much do I have to offset?"

"It's calibrated for Virmire gravity, so there shouldn't be any offset." He smiled behind his visor as Tali nodded, testing the rifle's scope before holstering it on her back.

"Perfect. So Nicolas takes the left and I take the right. When we get to the building, Tali will distract the geth and our first priority will be to disable the armature, then we neutralize the rest. Use the explosives if you have to," and with that, Garrus walked up to his side of the cliffs and started climbing with almost cat-like agility.

Nicolas ran to the other cliff and started climbing as Tali headed forward towards the last pieces of cover before the clearing. Her short range radio was riddled with static by the time it reached Garrus and Nicolas but they could still make out the gist of the message, "Armature-…-stroyers-…-same amoun-…-eth."

Hal highlighted nooks and crannies where Nicolas could get a hold to boost himself up the cliff on his HUD. The reduced gravity helped a lot and he was soon on top of the rocky formation, pushing the local plant life aside to make his way towards the AA turret. He attached a grenade to a block of plastic explosive and swiped his omnitool over the grenade, making its holo-display read 'REMOTE DET'. Deactivating his suit speakers and radio, Nicolas asked Hal to formulate a forgeable adhesive. After a few seconds, his omnitool lit up and he swiped his hand over the surfaces of the block, making sure to coat the whole surface with adhesive, except where he was holding it, of course.

Nicolas edged towards the edge of the cliff where he could see the AA turret building jutting out of the other rock formation in front of him. A glint of light caught his eye and he found Garrus signalling him from the other side. Nicolas waved the block of explosives in front of his face and Garrus nodded from afar, raising a block of his own. The turian pointed at himself, then at a group of Geth destroyers near the building's entrance. In response, Nicolas pointed at the geth armature that stood guard some meters further towards where Tali was. He prepared himself for throwing and waited for Garrus to throw his first.

The geth destroyers turned their heads to survey a splash that disturbed the shallow water between them, finding a black block resting on the ground before it exploded into a cloud of vapour, smoke and fire. The armature stumbled forward from the shockwave before a dull _clank_ resounded on its neck. The subsequent explosion created a shower of metallic debris, rattling the vegetation as far as where Tali stood. She poked out of cover to survey the damage and spotted various geth platforms exiting the building.

She checked the side of the rifle, making sure the eezo pellet was primed and receiving energy. A small holo-display showed the universal icon for tungsten, accompanied by the human letter W that symbolized the element. She took aim at one of the platforms as it surveyed the building's surroundings. _BANG._ Practiced hands pulled on the override mechanism for the rifle's venting, showing metallic coils glowing red. The humidity in the air hissed as the vent opened and soon the coils cooled down to not-glowing-temperatures. She took aim again. _BANG._

Nicolas flash forged a simple cable, asking Hal to make it just thick enough to support him. Producing a good ten meters, he tied an end around a rock and let the cable slip slowly from his hands as he descended from the cliff. As the cable ended, he let himself fall to the shallow water and he saw a third geth platform take aim at him from the stairs that lead up to the turret building. Nicolas' hand dashed for his hangun but after a dull thud, he looked to see the geth crumple to the ground missing a head, its coolant fluid dispersing on the water. He pulled a grenade from his belt and swiped his omnitool over it, setting it for 'CHAFF' and ran up the stairs leading into the building, throwing the grenade inside. When he heard the muffled bang, he ran in to the building to see a hail of miniscule aluminium strips floating in the air. The radar in his HUD showed a jamming warning and he stuck to the walls, turning corners quickly, starting to clear the building. Behind him he heard the splashing of water and then footsteps on the stairs. Nicolas turned, gun raised and aimed at the new arrival, finding Garrus with a raised hand. Nicolas nodded and Garrus caught up to help him clear the rooms.

A geth was crouched, assault rifle in hand facing an empty doorway. Thanks to the disruption of sensors, Nicolas was able to get a clean shot through the geth's head. The two hurried around the building to be able to empty it before the chaff had dissipated. Once they were done, Garrus activated his suit's speakers, "Good throw, broom head."

"Likewise, big bird."

"Throwing that chaff grenade was a smart move too… should've been my idea."

"I think there'll be a lot of overlooked weapons that will begin to come back if we're gonna continue fighting geth and husks. Lots of stuff that worked on organics won't affect them the same way."

Garrus nodded before turning to the turret's control room. Tali showed up shortly thereafter, handing Nicolas his rifle, then jogging to meet up with Garrus. Nicolas looked around the building, hoping to find loot somewhere. Naturally, as it was a geth-manned outpost, there was no extra equipment lying around, so he headed for where Garrus and Tali were. He found them bickering as Tali stood hunched over a holo-display.

"I tell you, Tali, if you find a way to disable the turret, what makes you think the geth won't be able to reactivate it?"

"That's fair enough, Garrus, but if you blow the turret, you'll alert the whole island to our presence."

"They've already _been_ alerted, Tali." Nicolas cut in, he wanted to be on good terms with the quarrian, but Garrus was right this time around.

"Ugh, fine," Tali grunted as she stood upright, the holo-display showing the schematics of the turret, labelling it as disabled, "But we _will_ stick around to see the explosion," she added with a playful tone.

"Oh-hoho, you don't need to say that twice," Nicolas smiled as he removed three blocks of explosives from his pouch.

Garrus pointed out structural points for Nicolas to set his explosives and they made quick work of the demolition preparations before walking to a safe distance in the Salarian camp's direction.

…

Shepard looked at Captain Kirrahe, the Salarian operative that was the head of the STG's mission in Virmire. Slim like a salarian, he had green skin and red-black eyes. He'd just said that every AA gun within range was fixed on the Normandy. They had been hidden in the thunderstorms and the ship's sensors would've had no way to find them. Now they were on the clock, they had to get whatever they had come to get, find a way to leave, and all before Saren had time to bring reinforcements in. To say the situation was dire was an understatement.

Captain Kirrahe blinked twice, then spoke, tone of surprise was there but subdued, "What? You're all they sent? I told the Council to send a fleet."

Shepard felt powerless. There was no way to foresee this. There was no way she would show the situation was this close to making her lose it. She had to keep everyone safe. She had to stop Saren. She kept her face straight and her tone level, "We couldn't understand your transmission. They sent me to investigate."

Kirrahe was about to speak again but was interrupted by an explosion. The ground shook as the shockwave passed, but the sound was muffled, deflected by the various cliffs. _So they got rid of that turret,_ Shepard allowed herself to close her eyes and take a deep breath to calm her nerves. A small smile appeared and she spoke to Kirrahe again, "That would be the rest of my team."

…

Garrus, Nicolas and Tali approached Shepard but saw she was busy, so they sat on the beach. Tali still had the giggles, what with the whole 'giant explosion' thing. Garrus seemed to be entertained helping the quarrian absorb everything he knew about the subject, so they talked quickly and enthusiastically as Nicolas stared out to the shallow water, keeping an ear out for what the Salarian was saying. He couldn't hear much, but he turned his head to the side to get a better angle when Wrex entered the conversation. Garrus stopped talking and payed attention as well. He had probably been eavesdropping for a while thanks to his good sense of hearing.

Wrex's grumbled, "How is that possible?"

"Apparently, Saren has discovered a cure for the genophage," the salarian clarified bluntly.

Wrex's eyes widened for a fraction of a second. It was too good to be true, though. Kirrahe was adamant on the destruction of this cure Saren seemed to have found. The salarian did have a point. An army of krogan able to breed and working for Saren posed a threat to the entire galaxy. Everyone listening seemed to agree; except Wrex, of course, and the salarian's wording could have been more… diplomatic.

"If that cure leaves this planet, the krogan will become unstoppable. We can't make the same mistake again."

A growl emanated from Wrex as Kirrahe spoke. He took a step towards the salarian and stood centimetres from his face. He raised a threatening finger under Kirrahe's throat and spoke in a low tone, oozing killing intent, "We are not a mistake."

Wrex turned to the right and walked a couple dozen meters down the beach. The salarian excused himself to devise a plan of attack on the Saren's base and Shepard walked towards the krogan. Kaidan, who had been standing beside Shepard the whole time, walked over to Garrus, Nicolas and Tali, letting himself fall down on the sand, "Wrex sure was pissed."

His statement was immediately proven right by a pellet blast raising a small pillar of water where Wrex unloaded his shotgun.

Garrus nodded solemnly, "He has good reason to. That Kirrahe was an ass."

Tali looked at the turian, "Never thought _you_ would sympathise with Wrex's point of view."

"I still side with Kirrahe. It's just that you can't say things the way he did." Garrus replied, earning nods of agreement from Tali and Kaidan.

Nicolas had tuned out the conversation, and opted instead on keeping an eye on Jane. Wrex didn't look like his mood was improving, and he still hadn't collapsed his shotgun. Nicolas' hand twitched when the krogan stepped closer to Shepard, he stood slowly. He didn't even try to listen in, they were easily fifty meters away, so he inched closer.

When Wrex started to lift his shotgun, Nicolas had already put a hand on his holstered rifle, pulling it out in one swift motion and set his reticule between the krogan's eyes. He knelt to keep his aim steady and he thumbed the safety to 'OFF'. Shepard raised her voice for a moment and then they were silent. Nicolas tightened the finger on the trigger and he felt a miniscule creak as it moved ever so slowly towards the firing position.

At the last moment before the rifle registered the trigger as pulled, Wrex lowered his shotgun. Jane had talked him down.

Nicolas stood up and collapsed the rifle. He let air out of his nose. His heart was racing, but his face was frozen in a detached, blank stare, and his hands didn't shake. He had been as ready as he could be to take the shot, and now that he didn't need to, his body didn't know what to do. He put the rifle on his back and walked to sit a bit further away from the group, letting small waves splash around his boots.

* * *

 **It always struck me as weird that no one on the Normandy has found the AA turrets or that no one addressed the cool thunderstorm that was happening outside Virmire's playable area.**

 **I hope you liked this chapter! I'll get straight to work on the next one. If you've got questions or feedback (I love both), send me a PM or leave a review!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17! Alright guys, took me a while, but it's done :D enjoy!**

 **All characters, settings and themes belong to bioware, no copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Giant waves roared in the distance as the group of salarians ran along the lower edge of a rocky cliff, careful to only step on the exposed sand over the shallow water so as to keep the noise to a minimum, avoiding detection. Their skinny frame made it easy to stay within the little patches of beach as they ran, whereas the much bulkier armour of their human companion was a lot harder to manoeuvre. Nicolas panted and a bead of sweat trickled down the bridge of his nose as he did his best to keep up and stay silent at the same time.

The group reached the end of the cliff they were skirting and the leader, Captain Kirrahe, took a small camera from one of his armour pouches. He let it fall on the water and activated his omnitool. The little spherical camera extended small rivets and rolled on the surface, moving away from the cliff and around the corner, sending a video feed to Kirrahe's omnitool.

"There are… seven geth primes guarding the main door," he paused for a moment as he looked at the video feed, making a small head count, "We're ten, with our human friend, so we are still outnumbered. Keltak, I need you and Nicolas to do a strafing run to this rock formation here," He showed the one of the other salarians the rocks he spoke of, "Once you have their attention, we will disable most of their weapons and with our combined fire, we should be able to take them down before reinforcements come. Proceed when ready."

Keltak, a salarian hidden behind a helmet with a dark green visor, nodded and looked behind him to confirm Nicolas had his back. He extended his pistol as Nicolas mirrored him and they approached the front of the group where the cliff ended. Nicolas held his breath waiting for the salarian to move, and when a big wave crashed in the distance, the salarian took off into the shallow waters.

Nicolas followed him, his legs moving at top speed under him. He extended his gun arm towards the geth, doing his best to keep his aim trained on the geth primes and fired, trying to do so between the shots Keltak took. The rocks were thirty meters away when the primes returned fire. The bullets _thwipped_ into the water around them and some hit their shields. Nicolas looked at his HUD: _shields at 30%._ Keltak's shields took a couple more shots as the rocks neared to ten metres, and finally they fizzled and died. The salarian started to sprint towards the rocks which were now ricocheting geth bullets and he collapsed when one pierced his helmet, blowing the far side off into a cloud of shattered ceramics and green blood. Nicolas dove for the rocks as his shields showed ten percent integrity and he rested his back against it, hearing loud thuds on the other side of his cover. He looked at the dead salarian as he waited for his shields to recharge before peeking out to return fire as the rest of the salarian group left their own cover, firing at the geth primes that now had their weapons remotely disabled.

Nicolas had expected there to be blaring sirens as the geth became aware of their presence, but there was none, and a salarian, his name was Tcherrel, shook his shoulder before half shouting, "We have to get to the entrance before reinforcements arrive!"

The group of nine ran towards a pair of concrete doors and huddled on both sides as Tcherrel proceeded to hacking the lock mechanism. There would be less running now, so some of the salarians holstered their assault rifles and opted instead for shotguns. Nicolas eyed them as he attached his pistol to a thigh and expanded the standard issue avenger rifle on his back. Hal tweeked the shaving mechanism to allow for a slightly bigger projectile and interfaced with the smart targeting. He needed to learn how the weapon worked before getting on with his own project.

As Hal entered Nicolas' gun, a small message explaining himself appeared on Baker's HUD: _you'll feel a little more of a kick when you fire, so brace yourself. Try not to lose too much time getting headshots, just make sure you're aiming directly at the target. Also, the door should be opening shortly, if Tcherrel is as good as I think he is._

Soon enough, the concrete blastdoors started grinding open, a vertical split forming down the center of the doorway. Nicolas peeked into the opening and saw a krogan at the far end of a hallway pull out his shotgun and fire at the door as he ran for the opening, a few lucky buckshots bouncing harmlessly off Nicolas' shields. The human brought his rifle up and aimed at the chest of the krogan. He braced as the split became a bit wider than his rifle and pulled the trigger. The gun gave low pitched _whups_ as it fired slightly faster than a shotgun. The stock kicked onto his shoulder but kinetic bleeders kept the barrel level as the first and second rounds made visible ripples on the krogan's shields. A third round disabled them and the fourth made impact with the helmet, splitting the entire head open like a watermelon.

The salarians peeked into the doorway and scuttled in followed by Nicolas as soon as the opening became wide enough for them. They briefly eyed the krogan corpse as they ran in and stopped where the hall split into three perpendicular halls. Schematics told them one headed for the cloning facilities, another for the barracks and the third to defence control. They headed for the defence controls and, rounding a corner, Kirrahe gave Nicolas his spherical camera and left towards the controls, leaving a salarian named Aekaf with him to 'hold the line'.

…

Jane rested her assault rifle on a knee facing the general direction of the cloning facility. Garrus and Wrex were crouched near her, the three guarding the most probable way reinforcements could come from as Tali hacked into a geth terminal, Liara watching curiously over her shoulder.

"That's it, Shepard, I've wiped their communication protocols, so it should be at least a couple of hours before they can coordinate forces again."

Shepard nodded and raised a hand to her helmet, activating the radio and contacting Kirrahe. They had progressed a lot towards deactivating the AA systems, and now it was high time she had gotten to the cloning facility to find out exactly what it was Saren was doing with the krogan so they could meet to plant the bomb.

They advanced towards the facility and burned through the disoriented geth. The krogans were stupidly reckless, and Wrex was always the first to shoot them down.

"So Saren was cloning indoctrinated krogan and using them as dumb cannon fodder," Wrex grumbled bitterly, he shot a look at Garrus as they all advanced down a hall with concrete walls riddled with holes. The krogan gave the back of Garrus' head a snear as they ran, "Can't say I'm surprised it was a turian."

Garrus didn't falter as he ran, what Saren was doing was monstrous, but he couldn't let Wrex get in the way of his focus on the mission. Shepard, however, pushed Wrex into the wall, making the group halt and turn to look at the two. She had left her assault rifle on the floor, and was standing straight in front of Wrex, his back at the wall. Before he could react to Shepard, she spoke, "I know you've got issues with this facility, but while we're still here you will shove comments like that up your ass. Remember it is because of my good way with words that you are still alive, Wrex. Next time I won't try to reason with you."

The krogan's eyes twitched to the right to see Tali, Liara and Garrus pointing their guns at him. They were all wary from when Wrex had pulled a shotgun on Shepard, yet didn't show it for the sake of the mission. He let air through his nose and closed his eyes for a second before opening them and nodding. They continued towards an office building where they met an asari that worked for Saren studying the effects of indoctrination. In exchange for her life, she gave the squad access to all the files regarding Saren's study and access to his laboratories downstairs.

…

Nicolas looked at the camera feed from the little sphere around the corner. They'd been successful at eliminating all the geth and krogan that came down the corridor, but their luck would surely run out quickly. As a matter of fact, they still had to push all the way to the cloning facility for the rendezvous with Shepard.

He turned to look at Aekaf. The salarian had taken off his helmet to better inspect a wound on his shoulder. It had already been dressed, but apparently it had cut off a nerve going to his arm, rendering it useless and extremely painful. Nicolas felt the occasional pained groans coming from the salarian, however justified, were getting on his nerves. He mentally pleaded for Kirrahe to return quickly.

A robotic buzzing came from down the hall and Nicolas' eyes focused intently on his omnitool. He had been using his grenades sparingly, as there was surely a lot more to battle through, but he didn't want to take his chances if the forces that came would be too much to just fire at around the corner. A couple of geth shock troopers emerged into the hall, coming from the cloning facility's direction. The two poked their pistols around the corner and began firing, doing their best to correct their aiming through the video feed. When he saw the geth stop to vent their rifles, Nicolas dropped his pistol and picked up the assault rifle he had rested against the wall. He rounded the corner and got down on one knee to fire the oversized slugs Hal had instructed his weapon to. The _whup whup whup's_ echoed down the hall as the geth collapsed, the bullets ripping through their limbs like butter. When the avenger rifle overheated and no more enemies were in sight, he came back around the corner and nodded at Aekaf that let his gun hand fall to the ground. The salarian was exhausted from blood loss and the painful wound wasn't helping.

Kirrahe's voice crackled through their radios, "AA turrets have been disabled, Shepard. We will be heading for the rendezvous point now."

Nicolas let out a small breath of relief as Jane's voice answered an affirmative response and Kaidan came through the radio, notifying them all that the bomb was ready for deployment.

…

Kaidan stood at the Normandy's garage, the salarian's ship's main drive at his side. It was odd to think that the device beside him, even though it barely reached his waist could level a five kilometre wide area. He'd had to rely on all his standard explosives training and a little help from a salarian's rushed instructions. Aekaf, was his name. It was little more than 'just attach the green and purple wires to this. Then set the timer. Cover it up with as much stuff as you can', so Kaidan had mostly worked on concealing the mechanism. It was essentially a giant scale version of a disruptor torpedoe that would use an atomic explosion to create the mother of all emp blasts, making the eezo pellet pulverize and create erratic mass effect fields. Ashley had told him as he worked that he would be ok, that Shepard would get them all back safely. ' _They didn't make her an N7 for nothing, you know?'_ She'd even brought a pill for his migraine from the medbay while he worked on the bomb. Now that there was little time to the drop off, she left for the CIC. It would've been dangerous to be in an open bay, what with her broken arm and all, but he couldn't help but feel lonely as the elevator doors closed.

He had the quartermaster's helper standing beside him to help carry the nuke down to the facility. Their instructions were to return to the Normandy once everyone had been extracted and they had activated the timer. It seemed so simple, yet something in Kaidan's gut gave him the feeling that something might go wrong. A migraine was creeping its way into his brain, and he popped the pill Ashley had given him. Now was not the time for his implants to endanger the mission.

…

Nicolas panted as he slumped against a wall, letting his avenger vent. Aekaf had been decimated by a rocket and the rest of the squad was dealing with the concussion from its blast. Kirrahe and two other salarians were laying suppressive fire down the hall they had just left, and another two were firing at the geth in the hall they wanted to enter. When his gun finished venting, he did his best to shake the dizzy feeling from his head and the buzzing in his ears. He stood up and joined the two salarians to open a way towards the cloning facility. He spared a moment to contemplate using his last grenade. _Not yet, it can still get worse from here on._ Kirrahe tapped his shoulder and the six remaining team members concentrated their fire on the geth that stood between them and the rendezvous point. As they advanced, Nicolas and Kirrahe would occasionally turn around and fire at any geth or krogan forces that could be catching up. They were running out of medigel and Nicolas' grenade was the last one they had, but it was not much longer to the extraction point.

He suddenly became aware of the fact that Hal had altered the firing mechanism of his Avenger. He muted his helmet's speakers and spoke, "Hal, can you give the salarian's your weapon tweeks? This thing with the big bullets is _working!_ "

"I'm sorry, Nicolas. The changes vary from weapon to weapon, and it takes me time to get everything to work. They'd -"

"Baker, your suit's mic is off. Are you alright?"

Nicolas looked at Kirrahe as they ran, a concerned expression on the salarian's face. He activated the mic, "Sorry, Captain. Just giving myself a little pep talk."

"Let me know if you're having trouble keeping yourself together. We aren't out of this yet," with this, Kirrahe turned forward and picked up the pace to take the lead towards the breeding tanks.

Hal continued, "It's not the time now, as I would have to disable their weapons while I work on it, anyway."

A large concrete door at the far end of a spacious garage was their last obstacle to reach the breeding tanks. They only had to get out and make it over to the bomb site. _Just a couple hundred metres more,_ Hal spoke into Nicolas' ear as Kirrahe huddled close to a terminal that controlled the room they were in. The door they had come in from was sealed shut thanks to the salarian's meddling with the room's systems, but he scoffed before speaking in an exasperated tone, "It's going to take me a while to open this one. Barricade the entrances and get ready for a large number of hostile forces."

Nicolas and the other five salarians got to work, moving crates to the two other entrances and hauling fuel canisters or anything else that could be explosive to the crude barricades. Loud banging could be heard from the other side as they blocked the doors, and everyone went back to Kirrahe, readying themselves for whatever may come. The banging ceased soon enough, but then a hissing sound and sparks started flying from each door's edges.

Nicolas palmed his grenade, then shook his head at the thought. _We have plenty of explosives stacked at the entrances, leave it for later._

He took a knee beside Kirrahe and pointed his avenger rifle at the far end of the room. The hissing stopped and with a metallic lurch, the far door fell to rest on the crates that had been stacked in front of it. A geth arm poked out with a rifle and fired erratically at the group. Concentrated fire demolished it in seconds, and a distinct krogan grunt emanated from the door before the crates gave way and the entrance opened. The krogan that had pushed the gate emerged behind two geth troopers that started absorbing most of the rounds that flew their way. Nicolas saw the krogan clone begin pulling a grenade from his belt at the same time that Hal shouted, "The fuel canister, Nicolas! The red one!"

The human took aim and a single shot blew it up into a big cloud of smoke. He saw the grenade fly up and stick to the ceiling before it exploded, letting concrete chunks cover most of the entrance once more.

"One entrance is blown, Kirrahe. How much more time you need?"

"However much you can give me."

…

"Shepard, come in, Shepard!"

"What's going on, Baker?" Jane winced at Nicolas' transmission. Back in the facility, they had encountered another Prothean beacon. Her head was throbbing from the interface. It was a big improvement from the explosion that came after getting close to the beacon on Eden Prime, but her head was killing her as it tried desperately to make sense of all the information that had been dropped on it. The conversation with Sovereign wasn't helping either. Her determination to destroy the Reapers couldn't be stronger, but a little voice in the back of her head murmured that beating them seemed impossible.

"There are too many of them, they've got me, Kirrahe and Rezden pinned down," Nicolas panted over the radio as Shepard looked at Kaidan as he put the bomb in place, "a little backup would be nice."

Shepard signalled to her squad and they made their way towards the far end of the breeding grounds, "On my way, Baker. Stay in one piece, will you?"

"I'll do my best."

…

Geth destroyers were inching closer to Nicolas who was hiding behind a rivet in the breeding ground walls. The geth stepped closer at an unfaltering rate, directing their fire at whoever was in line of sight. Kirrahe was making an emergency cauterization on what was left of Rezden's arm a few meters behind Baker. His rifle had just overheated, and he was firing with his shotgun around the corner. His spare hand crept up to the lone grenade on his belt. He inspected it and say the words 'HIGH EX' shining on its display. Peeking around the corner, he found the best spot to toss it.

Hal piped up in his translator, "Maybe now would be a good time to use it."

Nicolas nodded and threw it between the nearest geth platforms. He slid back into cover as the grenade blew, decimating three destroyers.

…

Shepard's squad piled into an elevator and walked along a bridge connecting the two sections of the building when a geth dropship flew over the facility and touched down near the bomb's location.

Nicolas spoke over the radio, "Kaidan, there seem to be geth reinforcements heading to your location."

"It's already here, and it's bleeding geth all over the bomb site… _Shit!_ There's too many! I don't think we can hold them. That's it, I'm activating the nuke," Kaidan shouted over the radio. Shepard stood at the center of the bridge. Her hands squeezed on the guardrail looking over an empty breeding sector.

"What are you doing, Alenko?!" Shepard demanded.

"Making sure this bomb goes off, no matter what. It's done, commander. Go get Baker and Kirrahe and get the hell out of here." Kaidan's voice seemed to crack for a moment but it quickly regained strength.

"Bullshit. That bomb has to go off, Shepard. Go help Kaidan." Nicolas shouted from his side.

Jane's knuckles were white under her gloves. The bomb was ticking, and it was either Kaidan or Nicolas and Kirrahe. She raised her hand to her helmet and let Nicolas know she was going for him.

Hearing this, Joker nodded with pursed lips and brought the Normandy towards Baker's location. Behind him, Ashley took a couple of deep breaths and paced around the cockpit.

Shepard ran for Nicolas' position flanked by Tali, Liara, Garrus and Wrex. There was no time to waste. A pang of guilt made her stomach curl up as she entered the elevator that would lead her to his position. When the doors opened on the lower level, the battle between the geth forces and what was left of Kirrahe's strike team seemed distant to Shepard. She could hear Kaidan grunting over the radio as she expanded her rifle and proceeded to take shots at the geth. The noises of the firefight felt muffled as she focused on the radio, making sure Kaidan stayed alive, at least so she knew the bomb remained intact.

The Normandy hovered above the breeding ground. Its back blast door opened to show the mako. One of the Normandy's crew was manning the turret as it began mowing down the enemy forces.

Aboard Sovereign, Saren spoke to a geth platform, "Set a course for the Mu Relay," he then turned and muttered to himself, "When the Reapers arrive, the clones won't make a difference anyway."

…

Ashley stood silent behind Joker's seat once they started flying away from Saren's facility. A dripping noise accompanied hurried footsteps as Jane walked briskly towards the cockpit, her armour leaving a trail of water behind her.

"Is Kaidan still alive?" She half shouted as the sky outside the viewport transitioned from light blue to the deep black of space.

"Life signs are stable, Commander, and he's transmitting something, but geth jammers are making it unintelligible." Joker looked over his shoulder, an uncharacteristic, sad expression on his face. Ashley brushed a tear away from her cheek as the Normandy turned to face the direction of the mass relay at the other side of the system.

"Stay in range until the bomb goes off, in case something of Kaidan's message comes through," Shepard sat on the co-pilot chair as she looked at Virmire from the viewport.

Joker nodded and let the static play. Sometimes, for just an instant, a snippet of Kaidan's voice could be made out over the continuous static. Ashley sobbed once and then they all were silent as the transmission went on. The Normandy left when the fireball shone on the planet's surface.

…

"Hey Ashley, I was going to act as if I was speaking to my mother or something, but I talked to you last before leaving the ship, and Sgt. Ulrich is dead, so… I don't think I have enough range to get a hold of an extranet buoy anyway, haha. I guess you could tell my parents I love them, but we haven't talked in years. It all seems pointless now," Kaidan was interrupted as bullets whizzed over the concrete block that shielded the bomb and himself from the advancing geth. He lobbed a grenade over his cover and fired blindly until his assaut rifle overheated. He brought his hand to his helmet once more to continue talking, "I don't have any regrets, at least. I worked hard to get to the Normandy, there really was nowhere else for me. I needed to make a difference and that ship was the place to be if what you wanted was to shake things up. I want to thank you for being a friend. It was hard for me to connect with anyone after brain camp, and well, you're a good person, is all I'm saying."

Kaidan stopped talking as he fired over the block once more, then he turned to the bomb behind him and wondered how much time was left. He activated his radio and waited for any signs that the Normandy received his transmission, but all he got was radio silence.

Alenko smiled as he slumped against the concrete block that was rapidly crumbling away due to the heavy fire it was enduring. He let his assault rifle fall to the water and the cooling system hissed as the liquid seeped into the radiators.

"What the fuck was I trying to say?" He wondered to himself before he started chuckling, "What the fuck were you trying to-"


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18! We're getting to the last chapters, guys! Thanks for reading. Enjoy!**

 **All characters, settings and themes belong to bioware, no copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

"So where would Saren be heading?" came the crackle of Tali's envirosuit speakers.

"To the Mu Relay. That's what we got from the Matriarch," Wrex grumbled with his arms crossed.

Shepard paced in front of the idle vidscreen, "There's at least fifty planets within the range of that Relay. It would take us too long to find him."

"M-maybe I can help," Liara stood up from her seat and inched towards Shepard, "the beacon on Virmire could have implanted new visions into your mind, giving us a more specific location."

Ashley smirked. Despite not liking the squid scalp, she turned out to be useful this time. The Normandy would have to make a pit stop at the Citadel to get weapon's maintenance before they could make their way to Ilos. Thanks to the positioning of the relays, they would be able to reach the planet in a day, offsetting Saren's head start.

Jane dismissed the crew and asked Joker to set a course for the Citadel. They would arrive within the next ten hours, so she went for her private quarters to catch some much needed shut eye. Most of the ground team sat at the mess hall quietly. Some were chewing on ration bars and others just sat there, all of them solemn, sad frowns on their faces. She sighed after having caught a glimpse of them on her way to her room and was about to jump into bed when her private terminal lit up. A window popped up showing that Ambassador Udina was calling. With a huff, she zipped up her casuals and sat at her desk.

The ambassador skipped all the pleasantries and went straight for the topic he meant to discuss. It annoyed Jane immediately, "I've read the reports, Shepard. Alenko was a respectable soldier, a pity he died on the battlefield."

"Hello, Ambassador," Jane did little to hide her annoyance at seeing the frowning man on the vid-screen, "A pity is an understatement. Kaidan was one of the best soldiers I have served with. He will be missed."

"Indeed. I must inquire, however, why it is that you chose to save the civilian and the STG member over one of our most talented biotics," Udina rubbed his chin and Shepard clenched a fist under the table anticipating a poisonous comment, "The salarians owe us no loyalties, and I doubt we'll earn many favours. Needless to say, the civilian is worth a lot less to the alliance than Alenko. Might there have been favouritism involved in your decision making?"

"Mr. Baker has proven to be effective on the battlefield, Udina. Captain Kirrahe was a vital part in the mission, and you don't need to have more than two neurons to know the salarians won't forget this. Also, Ambassador, you seem to forget that I answer to the Council as well as the Alliance, so if I were you, I wouldn't try to antagonize me," Shepard kept her voice level and let a little smile show as a sign of defiance as Udina's frown deepened.

"Remember who you're speaki-" Jane disconnected the call and sighed. Saving two lives was also better than just one, right? The orange glow of the terminal's holo-screen filled her vision as she slumped forward onto the desk, tired of the horrible day they'd all endured. After massaging her temples for a moment, she walked back to her bed after setting the terminal to sleep mode.

…

Nicolas rubbed his stomach as the cargo elevator descended to the garage. He had just eaten the high reparation meal and his activation pill was due in half an hour. Garrus had told him physical training was necessary if they were to confront Saren soon, so he had to hurry and check his prostheses for any faults, or he'd never hear the end of it. He sat on the weapons bench as he unscrewed the safety bolts under his knees before twisting the left prosthetic at the ankle, removing the foot and lower half of the shin. The synthetic muscles came next, and finally, the knee came off, leaving only the white ceramic interface between his own leg and the prosthetic. Laying the pieces out on the table, he disassembled each section, meticulously checking each component, comparing them to schematics Hal was displaying on the omnitool. It was relatively easy to keep his thoughts off Virmire, being so concentrated. Garrus and Tali had checked on him earlier, but were satisfied when he told them he understood Kaidan's decision, or at least he thought he did.

What Nicolas assumed was that Kaidan saw that he was definitely outgunned to the point where extracting him would have compromised the health of more crew members than if Shepard had chosen to rescue Nicolas and Kirrahe. He also assumed that Kaidan wanted more than just one life to be saved, but there was one thing he couldn't grasp: how could it be that Kaidan had made the conscious decision to commit suicide with only his immediate context and not a history of these sorts of thoughts. With a sigh, he told himself that he didn't know Kaidan or what the soldier had gone through. Whatever his reasons were, he couldn't let his death be in vain. As he put his left leg back together and got to checking the right, he thought to himself that no matter what, they would have to catch Saren, and bring him to justice.

…

Garrus checked his omnitool before eating the biodegradable wrapper for the ration bar he'd just finished munching down. It was time to set up the obstacle course for Nicolas' training. Now that they were one soldier down, he needed to make sure the Normandy's civilian was completely up to military standards. If those standards were turian, better still.

As he got up from the mess hall table, he thought back to his basic training. There was a short list of standard trauma a soldier had to go through before being war-ready by turian standards: the first near drowning experience, the first haemorrhage, seeing one's home planet from outer space, seeing an atomic blast from a distance, the first kill of a different species and the first kill of the same species and seeing a living being disintegrated by an explosive blast. As far as he knew, Nicolas had had most of those traumatic experiences within a period of less than two months. Needless to say, that was far from what could even be considered remotely healthy for the human's mind… he made a mental note to consult Dr. Chakwas about the issue.

The elevator door opened to an almost empty garage. As Garrus looked around, he saw Wrex sleeping against his favourite pillar, and near him was Nicolas, minus a leg, sitting on the weapons bench. He could tell the kid was concentrated, but there was something different in him. Normally, even the most seasoned soldiers couldn't help but tremble when removing their own prostheses for maintenance, but Nicolas was still. His eyes inspected each piece systematically, comparing it concisely to the image on his omnitool before setting it aside in a clearly designated place before moving on to the next piece. The human didn't even steal a glance at the elevator doors when they opened with a hiss and a metallic sliding sound.

Garrus was definitely talking to Chakwas after this, the human didn't even acknowledge his presence until he was a couple of meters away,

"Is it time already? It feels like ten minutes have passed." Nicolas spoke with a calm voice, his eyes glued to the component he was inspecting.

"It's been just eight minutes, broomhead, you've got time to spare. How're the legs doing?"

Nicolas shrugged, "They're doing what they're supposed to be doing. Nothing more. I'm gonna have to buy upgrades when we get to the citadel. They'll just have to do for the obstacle course, I suppose. My pill's due in fifteen minutes, want me to help with setting the course up?"

Garrus shook his head, "I can do it, don't worry. Just make sure you get all the pieces put together, you wouldn't wa-"

"Wouldn't want my shins falling off, right?" Nicolas chuckled, but his eyes were still fixed on the disassembled leg.

"Yeah…" Garrus chuckled and entered a silence he felt was getting awkward. Feeling the conversation was over, he walked away wordlessly.

…

"Don't look at your feet, broom head! Eyes forward!"

Nicolas was jumping from Mako tyre to Mako tyre with no signs of getting tired. Garrus felt the urge to tell him modifying his legs was cheating, but whatever advantage he could use was worth getting used to during practice. As he reached the end of the row of tyres, Nicolas fired three tight bursts of fire into the reinforced steel bullseyes and crouched low before his legs hissed as he jumped onto the roof of the Mako. Wrex had woken up from the gunfire during the previous obstacle run and watched with a hint of interest at the human's improvement over the last time he had tried Garrus' course.

"Alright, now with the full armour set." Garrus tapped his foot on the ground as Nicolas walked over to his Onyx armour set. Ashley walked into the garage to take a look at Baker and whistled with surprise as he redid the course, seemingly unhindered by the extra weight.

"He's come a long way, hasn't he?" Garrus couldn't help but let a little pride into his tone.

"Yeah, that's not the scared civvy I knew from a month ago- whoops!" Ashley's train of thought was interrupted as Nicolas tripped and fell flat on the Mako's roof as he came up, "Well, not the _scared_ civvy _,_ at least."

They both smiled as Nicolas walked back to them, holding the bridge of his bleeding nose. He looked at them from under his hand and huffed, "Yeah, laugh it off, you two. Let's see any other human on this ship jump the mako."

"Let's see any other human with Terminator legs," Ashley shot back with a smile on her face.

"With _what_ legs?" Nicolas asked as he let his hand fall to his side, the blood flow stemmed.

"Never mind. You cheated, Baker."

Garrus chuckled and sent Nicolas to take a shower. He tidied up the garage before heading for the medbay.

…

The doors whooshed open. Dr. Chakwas looked up from her holo-display at her turian visitor, "How may I help you, Vakarian?"

"I had a question regarding our local civilian, doctor."

"And what might that question be?" Chakwas leaned forward on her desk, chewing on a pencil-shaped medical device as Garrus sat on a chair opposite her.

He shuffled around on the seat to find comfort in the awkward human chair, "Well, the thing is, Nicolas has been acting weird lately."

"Has he now?" Chakwas gave him a condescending smile, "A comrade of his has died quite recently, if I remember correctly."

"It's not that, doctor. I know how people react to teammates dying, and that's the problem. He seems to be taking everything in… unnaturally well. By turian standards, he has experienced everything a soldier needs to experience to be war-ready. Not battle-ready or urban duty-ready, _war-ready_. However, he's done so impossibly quickly, and I find it odd that he's still in one piece."

Chakwas leaned back on her chair, a grim expression on her face. She chewed on her 'pen' as she looked at Garrus, contemplating whether she should tell him something best left unsaid, "That is because I have been administering antidepressants and homeostasis aiding drugs ever since he's set foot on the Normandy."

The turian's eyes widened, "What? But he's a civilian! You've been drugging him without his consent?"

"Do you have anything to say about the issue?"

"Unnotified medication is reserved only for acute issues on _soldiers_ , Chakwas. What you're doing is morally wrong on so many levels."

The doctor clenched her hand around the 'pen' at the accusation. Her relaxed demeanour became the seemingly calm one of a tiger about to pounce on its prey. She leaned forward on her chair, leaving her 'pen' on her desk, "Now you listen, and listen closely. The commander saw fit that Nicolas remain aboard for the whole duration of the mission. Over the course of a month he has seen things that no soldier of any species should see until long after basic training without the risk of catastrophic ramifications for the soldier's mind, Vakarian, **OF COURSE I'VE BEEN BLOODY MEDICATING HIM!** His mind wouldn't have even lasted past the installation of the prostheses. Hell, he had already had a nervous breakdown when he lost his _real_ legs."

Garrus took a deep breath. He knew the doctor was in the right, "And what happens when the mission is over? Can he just go back to a normal life after all this?"

Chakwas got a hold of her anger and returned to her relaxed position, but her frown didn't leave, "I'll try to keep him on the Normandy for as long as I can and start reducing the doses. That way, in a couple of months, I'll be able to stave off the withdrawal syndrome and he'll be ready to re-join civilian society. Hopefully."

"And what if he doesn't lose the syndrome?"

"He'll become apathetic," Chakwas spoke in a matter of fact tone, leaning back into her chair, feeling too familiar with the consequences of unchecked PTSD, "have spurts of acute depression. His personality will show signs of sociopathy and he might experience audio-visual hallucinations, along with a couple more side effects. Trust me, I have no intention of letting him go untreated, and I didn't want him here to begin with. The commander, however, had made a decision, and at that point in the mission, I couldn't decide I no longer wanted to follow orders. Besides, just as the commander said, he was safer aboard the Normandy than exposed to Saren or whoever was loyal to him."

"…Spirits, who else knows about this?" was all Garrus could think to ask of.

"Only the commander, you and I know of this slight deviation from protocol. I only notified you because you've been his mentor aboard the Normandy and he trusts you," She averted her attention to the holoscreen in front of her, "I think that is all we have to speak of, Vakarian."

Garrus nodded and excused himself, leaving for the sleeping quarters. They would arrive at the citadel in four hours, and that meant he could get three of sleep.

…

Jane woke up to her omnitool's alarm. She rubbed her eyes as she looked through her notifications. Udina had sent her a message, surely an angry paragraph of how she is a human first and foremost and must place her species' interests before those of the council. Opening it, however, she was pleasantly surprised. The council had decided to form a fleet constituted by ships of all the council species to aid her in the mission against Saren.

"We're gonna need all the help we can get." She mumbled as she stepped into the shower, making a mental note to head straight for the council hall once she set foot on the citadel.

There was a slight tremor as the Normandy arrived at the Serpent Nebula's relay. She called Liara and Garrus to get dressed and wait for her at the airlock as she dried her hair. Jane wasn't one to lick anyone's boots, but having an asari and a turian at the meeting with the council was sure to work in her favour. Maybe they'd feel more inclined to hastening the preparations for the end of their mission.

She walked at a brisk pace towards the airlock, letting Presley take over the deck and giving everyone in the ground team not going with her shore leave while the Normandy received its maintenance.

Nicolas got into the alliance fatigues that the requisitions officer had given him and walked up to the cockpit. He peeked over Joker's chair and saw the pilot scratching his head, looking perplexed.

"What's up, Joker?"

"I don't know, Baker, something weird's happening."

Nicolas waited for clarification and nudged the chair when he didn't get any, "mind telling me what it is?"

"Well, it's standard protocol that I'm supposed to have access to the Normandy's communication systems during maintenance, but right now I'm locked out of everything except the airlock controls, the intercom and the air conditioning." Joker frowned at a red circle on the Normandy's HUD.

Nicolas shook his head, "maybe they're maintaining the comms?"

"The comms were pretty much in pristine conditions after Virmire. Hell, we only need a couple of hull replacements and…" Joker became silent as a frown creased his face.

"And what, man?"

"They locked me out and I haven't seen anybody form the maintenance team show up. They disabled comms so I couldn't contact Shepard, and the only people who have access to the master controls of the Normandy are the alliance and the council. I need you to go get Shepard, Baker, and quick."

"On it, Joker." Nicolas jogged to the airlock and waited impatiently for the atmosphere to equalize.

…

By the time Nicolas was arriving at the council hall, he could make out Shepard in the crowd that was forming around her. Her red hair approached the elevator at an alarming speed, followed closely by a blue, tentacled scalp and Garrus, which stood a good 30 centimetres over the rest. The doors opened just in time for Shepard to enter. She turned to Nicolas, her commander face holding back an anger so fierce it seemed to chill the air within the elevator.

"Back to the presidium." Her voice was level and menacing. Nicolas pressed the button to go down as fast as he could and they were immediately zooming back down, heading for the Normandy. Shepard didn't say another word until they reached the ship.

Hal spoke through Nicolas' translator, "The Normandy is still on lockdown and no maintenance team has arrived."

Opening his omnitool, Nicolas typed out a small note, "I guess we're grounded, then."

…

Garrus, Liara, and Shepard dispersed into the ship as soon as they were through the airlock. Shepard dismissed them with a quick comment about an indefinite shore leave and stormed off to the crew deck. Nicolas was soon alone with Joker on the cockpit, wondering what to do with himself.

"We could go to Chora's Den, get wasted while we wait for Saren to invade." Joker commented offhandedly from his seat.

"I _could_ go for some alcohol… Let me get a ration first," Nicolas excused himself and headed for the mess hall.

As he descended the stairs, he heard a sharp clang come from the cryo pods. He walked up to the long hall to find Jane sitting against the furthest pod, holding her head in her hands, the knuckles on her right reddening after the blow she had given the unsuspecting pod.

"I've got sad and angsty songs in my collection, in case you need something to understand you."

A small smile crept up to Jane's mouth but disappeared immediately, "Screw you, Baker."

Nicolas' smile didn't last long either. Their situation was dire, and he couldn't, for the life of him, come up with any semblance of a solution, "Something'll come up, Jane," he sat beside her, against the next pod. He decided to try and distract her from the whole grounded thing, "I've always wondered what these cryo pods are for, since we've had FTL technology for so long."

Shepard hmmmed as she looked down the corridor. The frown she'd been wearing softened a bit as she spoke, "These cryo pods are meant to flash freeze once occupied. Chakwas will put whoever she can't fix with the Normandy's equipment in them so they can be brought to a bigger medical institution with minimal risk of death."

"And here I was, thinking they were just there to make the corridor look pretty."

Shepard chuckled, "Nothing is in this ship based solely on looks."

Nicolas smiled, "Thank you!"

Shepard smiled now, "Oh no, you're just here because of that scruff you've got growing on your face and nothing more."

"Need I remind you that it was Tali and I who got Saren's recording to you in the first place? I'm more than just good looking."

"Touché, Baker, touché."

Nicolas fiddled with his hands, reminding himself of Tali's recurring gesture for when she was nervous. He turned to find Shepard still smiling and he shifted a bit closer, "Thanks for taking us in, Shepard. We wouldn't have made it by ourselves."

Jane felt a pang of guilt, thinking back to having authorized Nicolas' antidepressants, "It was the least I could do."

Nicolas saw her smile die away and went for his backup plan, "Joker said he was thirsty. Maybe we can grab a beer at Chora's Den?"

Shepard made a face that shouted a sarcastic _Really, man? A strip club?_

"O- or the Flux!" Nicolas exclaimed hurriedly, "The flux has better drinks… and more clothes."

"It sounded like you were in fact looking for a place with _less_ clothes."

Nicolas shook his head, "Chora's was Joker's idea. I don't like asari anyway."

"You don't get the hots for blue heads?"

"I'm partial to redheads, actually."

Jane's eyes snapped to Nicolas', "And what's that supposed to mean?"

With a chuckle, Nicolas got up and offered Shepard a hand, "Interpret it however you like, Jane. Now, how about that beer?"

He pulled her close as he helped her up. Shepard's expression was that of someone still undecided whether to push away or pull closer. They stood like that for a couple of seconds, a smirk forming on Shepard's lips before Joker spoke over the intercom, "Sorry for interrupting, commander, but Captain Anderson asked for you. Said to meet him in the Flux. He also said it was urgent."

"Were you spying on us, Joker?" Jane smiled up at the ceiling, her hand on Nicolas' chest softly pushing him away.

"Wouldn't dream of it. I just knew you were here because you stormed past me without saying hello a while back."

"If it's an apology you want, you're not getting it," Shepard turned to Nicolas, "And you, get into your armour. We don't know what Anderson might want."

With a quick nod, Nicolas jogged for the cargo elevator. Joker's voice crackled once more over the intercom, "For the record, I wanted to go to Chora's because they don't charge an entry fee."

Jane chuckled and shook her head, "Sure you did, Jeff."

* * *

 **So that was chapter 18! I hope you liked it :)**

 **I know this was a pretty action-less chapter, but its just a short break before the last mission, in case anyone's getting a bit bored.**

 **Any feedback, comment or question is appreciated! I'll get to work on the next chapter right away!**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chaaaaaapter 19! Enjoy!**

 **Everything in this fanfic is owned by Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Nicolas smiled under the glass' lip as he sipped from the Serrice Ice Brandy on the rocks he had ordered. He sat at Flux's bar beside a salarian that would not stop droning about how he had earned so many credits cheating on slot machines, but his attention was completely taken by the woman across the dancefloor, Jane. Shepard sat with Captain Anderson, both of them nursing beers and talking with serious faces but they were too far away for Nicolas to even try reading their lips. Whatever they were talking about, it had to be important.

The salarian chattered on, "-So here's how you can help me. I just need you to go upstairs and find the machines with three kromby leaves, that's a sign the glitch hasn't been patched, and-"

"Listen, right now I haven't got time for a toad's-"

"A toad?"

"Yeah, a toad. I haven't got time for your evil master plan, so go talk to someone who might be remotely interested." Nicolas waved the salarian off and gulped down his drink when he saw Shepard stand, getting up as well.

He started feeling woozy as he crossed the dancefloor but managed to keep his footing when he stood behind Jane. Garrus showed up almost at the same time beside him as Shepard addressed Anderson, "Go to Udina's office. It'll give us our best chance to escape."

With a nod, the captain left and Shepard turned around, smiling mischievously at her company, "So, boys, who wants to catch a rogue spectre?"

Garrus' hand shot up and he looked at the other two. Nicolas chuckled and pointed at the turian, "At least he does."

…

The elevator couldn't rise quickly enough, and Shepard paced around the cramped space waiting to reach the top level. When they finally arrived at the Normandy's dock, she jogged up to the airlock, Nicolas and Garrus close behind. The rest of the ground team had been notified shore leave was over and been told of Shepard's plans for un-grounding the Normandy. Everyone had arrived shortly before them. Once inside, Jane headed straight for the cockpit and looked over Joker's shoulder at the red circle on the dashboard's HUD.

The pilot was startled to see the commander looming over him, "Jeez, commander, it won't change any quicker if you look at it like that."

"You never know, Joker," Shepard didn't take her eyes off the display, and soon, Joker followed suit, staring at the red circle in silence.

Garrus looked at Nicolas before tilting his head at the other two. They both shrugged and started walking towards the mess hall. Halfway down the corridor, Garrus heard a gasp coming from the cockpit and they were immediately thrown backwards as the Normandy pulled away from the citadel, its kinetic compensators taking a moment to catch up.

…

"Crew of the Normandy, this is Commander Shepard. You have been briefed on what we are doing. The council had grounded us and wished to keep us that way until Saren could make his way to the Citadel. I trust you know as well as I do that we could not stand by and let the rogue spectre go through with his plan, so we have stolen the Normandy and are currently heading for Ilos, at the other side of the Mu Relay. We do not know what we will find on that planet, but know this: we will all see Saren answer for his crimes against the galaxy by the time all this is over. Shepard out."

Nicolas looked up at the bathroom's ceiling after Shepard's short speech. By tomorrow in the afternoon (standard citadel time), they'd be arriving at Ilos. The whole ground team had had a quiet dinner in anticipation of the end of their big mission and by now, nearly everyone had turned in for the night. He finished brushing his teeth and looked at himself in the mirror. After a month of being too busy to care about his personal appearance, his beard had grown long, and he now had a full head of hair. A scar had formed on his upper lip from the night when a batarian had broken his jaw and shot his legs off. Bags under his eyes reflected the stress he had undergone the previous weeks and he felt it was a miracle there were no more symptoms of it. Putting his toothbrush away, he left the bathroom just in time to see Jane descending the stairs from the CIC.

"Off to sleep, commander?"

Jane yawned and then frowned at Nicolas, "I thought I told you to call me Jane. And perhaps… it's been a long day. Why do you ask?"

Nicolas shrugged, "It's just that our shore leave was kind of short lived, and I do have a bottle of rum stashed away," he pointed with a thumb towards the crew quarters, "it wouldn't do to drink it by myself."

Shepard raised an eyebrow and rested a hand on her hip, "Wanna give me half, Baker?"

"If you've got the soda…" Nicolas shrugged.

"I'm pretty sure Anderson left a bottle of Quasar Cola in the captain's quarters before he gave me the Normandy."

"Isn't that fortunate?" Nicolas smirked and his heart skipped a beat when Jane winked.

"Go get the bottle, I'll get the glasses."

Nicolas didn't need to be told twice, so he did his best to keep his composure as he turned to go get the bottle and punched the air when he was safe behind the closed crew quarters door. He rummaged around his duffel bag as Garrus turned over on his bunk bed.

The turian whispered, "Having an extended shore leave, are we?"

Nicolas almost dropped the bottle, startled, he turned around to see the two glowing dots in the darkness that were Garrus' eyes, "I'll leave you some rum if you don't tell anybody, big bird."

A flanged chuckle preceded Garrus' last whisper before he turned back around, "I can't drink rum, it makes me fat; but your secret's safe with me, broom head. Just try to keep it down, my sense of hearing is better than yours."

…

Nicolas woke to see a dim holodisplay, _0900 hrs._ He blinked twice, remembering there wasn't a holodisplay on the wall beside his bunk bed, _0901 hrs._ Noticing how uncharacteristically comfortable the bed was he realized, _this isn't my bed._ An arm was draped over him, its weight pushing down a bit on his neck, so he turned over to face its owner. Jane was still sleeping tight, the rum bottle empty on the desk a couple of meters away from the bed. Nicolas' mouth was parched, so he rolled slowly out of bed, grabbed his clothes and the empty glasses and got dressed quietly. He peeked out the door to check no one was around before leaving for the bathroom to fill the glasses with water.

Jane woke with the sound of her door whooshing shut. She rubbed her eyes and murmured, "Nicolas?" but no one answered. Sitting up, she found his clothes to be missing from the bedside floor, as well as the glasses, but the bottle was still on the desk. She suddenly felt annoyed at Baker. _First he bails and then he only cleans up half of the things?_ With a huff, she leaned over the side to get her clothes when there was a knock on the door. Finding her omnitool, she looked at the video feed outside her door to see Nicolas waiting. She unlocked the door remotely and covered herself as Nicolas entered, the door closing and locking behind him.

"You know, I gave the crew the liberty to sleep in today. You didn't need to get dressed." Jane frowned as Nicolas drew closer.

"I was thirsty, and I didn't want anyone who might've been in the mess hall to see me naked." Nicolas sat at the end of the bed and offered Jane a glass of water, which she took and gulped down, "Hungover?"

Shepard scoffed, mock hurt, "please, you'll have to do better than half a bottle of rum," she winced as her head throbbed once, as if to call her out on her bullshit.

"I think the bottle of rum was more than enough, and you should get into the habit of drinking water before you go to sleep," He smiled as he handed her the second glass.

"Whatever," she said before downing the water, "just get back in bed, I'm cold."

They spooned in silence until the clock showed 0930 hrs. Shepard turned over to face Nicolas and asked, "Hey, can we do this again after it's all over?"

Nicolas pulled Jane closer, resting her head on his shoulder. He looked up at the ceiling to add a moment of suspense, "Alright, but you're buying the booze next time. I'm all out of rum."

She laughed and gave Nicolas a quick peck, "You're on snack duty, then. So you don't have to raid the pantry naked."

…

"Commander, we have a problem," Navigator Pressley talked over his shoulder at Shepard.

"Well, don't keep us waiting, Pressley! Tell us."

Shepard, Pressley, Baker, Vakarian, Williams and Joker crowded the cockpit. They had just exited FTL and the Normandy's sensors had just finished doing preliminary scans of the Refuge system. The binary star was orbited by three planets, and one of them was their objective: Ilos.

Pressley had been tasked with looking for signs of Saren's position while Baker and Vakarian looked through the planet's spectral scans.

Pressley spoke again, "There is a high concentration of geth activity in these coordinates," he highlited a point on a hologram of the planet displayed in front of the viewports, "but Sovereign is looming over them, obviously for surveillance reasons. Landing stealthily there will be impossible."

Ashley chimed in, "What about a mako drop nearby? If we go around three klicks away, chances are we won't be spotted."

"There's the other problem. The terrain is covered in dense foliage and ruins, and we don't know what the topography's like." Pressley shook his head, "The mako needs at least one hundred meters of flat terrain for a safe drop."

"Dropping us off straight from the Normandy would also be inconvenient, commander," this time, it was Nicolas who spoke, "Ilos' atmosphere is mostly oxygen, so if we get anywhere near that foliage, we'll surely cause a wildfire, losing our element of surprise."

Shepard massaged the bridge of her nose. Ashley started losing her patience, "Well then, find a clearing somewhere!"

"There **is** no clearing somewhere!" Pressley lifted his arms over his head in exasperation, "The biggest clearing is a twenty meter hole that leads to some kind of platform, from what I can tell. It's three klicks away, but the mako _cannot_ drop unto twenty meters!"

Shepard continued massaging the bridge of her nose, racking her head for an alternative plan. There was no way Saren could be alerted to their presence before they even landed, and the stealth systems were starting to make the cabin's heat rise.

Joker wiped off drop of sweat that had entered his beard and looked at Ilos' hologram, he looked down at his hands before murmuring, "I can do it," then louder, "I can do it!"

Shepard looked at the back of his head, "What?"

"The mako, I can put it in that clearing."

"Fifty credits say he can't." Nicolas told Garrus, who looked over at the pilot.

Joker looked over his shoulder to meet Garrus' gaze, and the turian turned back to Nicolas, "You're on."

Shepard clapped her hands together, "Alright, I want Vakarian, Wrex, Baker and Liara in the mako. Is the atmosphere breathable, Baker?"

"No, Shepard, too much oxygen, too much pressure." Nicolas shook his head.

"Everyone takes their helmet, then. Ashley, you're on the Normandy's turret, just in case we need extra firepower," Ashley nodded and sat beside Joker. Shepard continued, "Tali will stay here and help out with anything the Normandy needs, since we didn't get that maintenance after all. Did I get everyone?"

Joker and Ashley nodded. The rest of the squad followed Shepard to the garage.

…

Garrus was standing in the mako's turret space, going through a weapons check as the rest of the crew piled in. He heard his name and ducked down to look at the squad.

"Hey Garrus, if we crash through a tree, it counts as a loss for you." Nicolas said as he checked his handgun before holstering it.

"Don't jinx Joker, Nicolas!" Shepard smacked the back of Nicolas' helmet as she walked by to the driver's seat, the loud clack startling the squad, except Wrex, who shook his head, a smile probably hidden under his helmet.

The mako's back hatch closed as it drove towards the Normandy's drop hatch. Its tyres stopping at the little bumps to help positioning. Joker's voice filled the silence in the cabin, "Alright, strike team. We are approaching the drop point, so I'll just assume everyone is strapped in. Remember that this drop is a bit unorthodox, so while I can accurately put you in that little spot you need to land on, any movement _you_ do during the fall can muck it up. If you do muck it up, I can't guarantee your safe landing, so please sit still, alright?"

"Just drop us, Jeff," Shepard banged the roof twice.

"Ok, we are ten seconds away from the drop zone… three, two, one, mark."

The drop hatch opened under the mako, releasing it into the dense, oxygen rich atmosphere of Ilos. The vehicle's belly formed a layer of oxidized titanium alloy and flames sparked around the tip, where the pressure was highest. The mass effect nodes at each corner fought against the dense air to keep the mako level as it plummeted down to the landing zone, which looked like a pinhead from the vehicle's optics.

Inside the cabin, everyone was holding on to the roof, doing their best to sit as still as possible. Liara's breathing was hitched and uneven as she tried to not concentrate on how dizzy she was. Nicolas and Jane gnashed their teeth and Wrex and Garrus kept their eyes closed, their demeanours calm and collected.

As soon as the mako was under the treeline, at thirty meters of altitude, its mass effect generators were activated remotely by Joker, reducing its mass drastically before it came into contact with the ground. All six wheels touched down in unison, and it bounced the mako half a meter up before it came to rest. There was a long pause before the squad let the breath they were holding out before releasing their restraints and Shepard began driving on an old prothean road towards the place where the geth were.

Garrus smiled to himself as he looked through the turret's optics, "You owe me fifty credits, broom head."

…

"Garrus, I've got movement four hundred meters away on our twelve o'clock." Nicolas said as he looked at the radar feed. Wrex and Liara had been giving the whole squad's weapons one last check during the trip.

"Let me see…" Garrus looked through his vid-screen, "I see them."

A moment later, a dull _whoomp_ shook the cabin as the hundred gram slug was fired from the main cannon. It made impact on an unsuspecting group of primes, obliterating them as the rest of the geth group, composed mainly of shock troopers and rocket troopers took cover in the old Prothean architecture where the road lead.

A troop transport flew over the geth group, dropping an armature which began firing with the rest of the troopers. Shepard swerved to avoid its plasma bursts as Garrus sprayed bullets with the turret and added a cannon shot every time it was cold enough to fire. By the time the squad was a hundred meters away, the only geth platform left was the armature. A plasma shot hit the mako, leaving its shields at 50% integrity. Garrus fired away, gnashing his teeth as the rest of the squad cheered for their imminent victory when his screen turned red and a loud screech came from the turret.

"Jammed?!"

Shepard swerved to the side, avoiding another plasma shot and crashing through a couple of trees, leaving the armature's line of sight. She took her seatbelt off and addressed the squad, "Everyone out! Garrus, unjam the turret. The rest of you, with me. We're just gonna have to take the armature out on foot."

As everyone got out of the mako, another plasma shot impacted on a tree that was blocking the way. It burst into flames as the squad ran to the road, guns held high. At Shepard's order, they concentrated their fire on the armature's neck, sheering off the head in a matter of seconds.

They all ran back to the mako, where Garrus was still at work on the turret. The fire started spreading to other trees, and the crew shielded their faces, the fire's heat seeping through the armour.

"Commander, the atmosphere's corroded the firing mechanism. I've fixed the cannon, but the turret's down and out." Garrus shook his head as he jumped off the mako's roof. Shaking his gloves off, he left big clouds of orange and white dust that floated to coat the mako's hull in rust.

"That means our weapons are prone to corrosion as well. Everyone keep your guns as far from overheating as possible, use short bursts! It's the only way to slow down the process!" Nicolas half shouted to get everyone's attention.

They drove onwards, away from the wildfire which was now spreading quickly.

…

The squad drove on towards the spot where the most geth activity was concentrated. Between the orange trees, the crew could see a tall structure emerge. Its architecture was consistent with the Citadel's council tower, and at its top sat the Reaper, Sovereign. Nicolas suddenly frowned at his radar vid-screen.

"Garrus, can you look half a kilometre in front of us? I think those are armatures."

"Confirmed, Baker, two of them. They are entering the building, followed by geth troops… and… is that Saren?"

The whole ground team snapped to attention, their eyes glued to Shepard's vid-screen showing the view up front. She zoomed in as she drove to see the turian looking back at them, "Shoot the son of a bitch, Garrus!"

The loud _whoomp_ shook the cabin as the slug fired. A fireball appeared where Saren was, and there he remained once the smoke cleared.

"He's still there, Garrus, keep shooting!" Shepard slammed the accelerator down, speeding up straight towards Saren. She was able to drive in a straight line, as the armatures seemed not to take interest on the mako.

"The shots aren't connecting, commander! Looks like the building has some form of shield." Garrus shouted desperately as he blasted shot after shot to no avail.

"We're running him over, then." Shepard bared her teeth as Saren could now be seen clearly through her vidscreen.

The crew braced as they approached. When they were fifty meters away, the entrance to the building shut, Saren's smug face being the last they saw of him.

The squad piled out. Liara stood before the building, looking up to see one of Sovereign's claws holding on to the edge, "We have to get inside, before Saren finds the Conduit! There's no way we are opening this door by force."

Shepard punched the door before resting her helmet on it. To their left were a set of stairs leading up. Garrus paced around the mako once before he got an idea, "Saren must've opened this door somehow! There must be some form of a security override nearby, and if we find it, we'll be able to get this door open."

"We better start looking, then." Hal spoke to Nicolas through his translator as the squad started going up the stairs.

* * *

 **So yeah, beginning of the end has begun. I'll get on with the next one!**

 **As always, feedback is appreciated! Don't hesitate to PM or leave a review :D**


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20!**

 **Everything in this fanfic is owned by Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

 _Wup wup wup wup wup,_ Nicolas rested his rifle against a half shattered block of granite, the heavy rounds pulverizing whatever they came into contact with. Clouds of orange rust, white granite shards and sprays of coolant fluid filled the air surrounding the building Saren had disappeared into as Shepard's ground team shot their way through geth troopers and krogan sized armatures.

Every few rounds, the squad would have to take cover and vent their weapons to avoid overheating and corroding them in the process. It was disconcerting how the geth were able to maintain a steady stream of fire.

"How the _hell_ are they doing it?" Garrus yelled into his microphone as he ducked under a rapidly deteriorating granite block.

"Doing what, Turian?" Wrex sat beside him, equally exasperated at the geth's rate of fire.

"Keeping their suppressive fire going, of course! What else would I be asking, how they keep their armour shining in this atmo?"

Nicolas would've laughed at how they yelled if he weren't pinned down by a trooper, "Throwing a chaff grenade!"

Activating the five second countdown, he tossed the disc grenade over his cover and waited for the bang. When it came, he stood up and rested the assault rifle on his cover. The rest of the team got up as well, and each took a target. Out of the corner of his eye, Nicolas saw a geth unit behind cover, racking its rifle.

"Huh?"

A red-hot coil sprung out of the geth's rifle, combusting immediately in the oxygen-rich atmosphere. The trooper inserted another coil into the rifle, and it got up to continue firing. As soon as its head was over its granite block, however, three strings of bullets converged on it, obliterating the head in seconds.

Nicolas tilted his head slightly down, a cue for Hal to activate his radio, "Shepard! The geth have their weapon's cooling systems in disposable compartments! After one has overheated, they just replace them."

Shepard's voice crackled over everyone's headsets, "So _that's_ how they do it. Alright, everyone! New strategy! First order of business is flanking them! They'll only duck behind cover when they can't fire. Don't bother with suppressive fire, since they won't duck, and they're too many to not know where we are, but we can cover all angles so they can't be safe when reloading if we chaff their comms off."

The team fanned out, jumping between cover as they went. In a matter of seconds, the geth units were surrounded, and they were picked off one by one each time a unit had to reload.

Nicolas walked up to a coil of rust that had finished combusting. When he kicked it to turn it over, the coil shattered into orange dust and coolant fluid. He walked up to another and gave it a quick scan with his omnitool before following the rest of the squad into a small structure on the side of the giant building. Hal started talking about adapting it to his weapons but stopped when the team found a security panel. Once Shepard had activated it a hologram came to life, whatever it was meant to show distorted beyond recognition after thousands of years of neglect.

The squad was mezmerized by the hologram, for even if it gave them no useful information, the technological prowess of the protheans had suddenly become palpable. A semi-functioning hologram was still going fifty thousand years after its creator had perished.

"Let's head for the mako, the door should be open, and the hologram seems too damaged to be of any use," Liara started turning around toward the exit, the rest of the squad following suit, but Shepard lingered for a moment.

"You guys… you guys don't understand it?" Shepard frowned at the hologram.

Nicolas turned back around, confused, "Hold on, you _can_ understand it?"

"Well, it _is_ damaged, but I can tell it's saying something about the Conduit being the only hope," she shook her head as they all started walking back to the mako, "or something like that."

…

The squad was silent as Shepard drove along the path inside the Prothean building. Everyone had a vidscreen active observing the surrounding walls, dotted with inactive cryo-pods.

Garrus squinted at his video feed and bent down to look at Shepard, "Commander, correct me if I'm wrong, but… is that a force field up ahead?"

Everyone switched their video feed to the front cameras. A few hundred meters away, glowing orange through the fog that had formed in the corridor, was indeed a force field blocking the way. Stretching a hundred meters up the walls of the building, there was no way they were getting through it without finding some kind of control panel.

Once they were a few meters away from it, Nicolas glared at his own feed, "Guys, I think we're stuck."

A new force field had materialized behind the mako, trapping them. Shepard ordered everyone out, and as soon as she had splashed down to the slightly flooded corridor, she noticed a depression into the wall beside them, leading to an elevator.

"Wrex, stay on the mako, let us know if anything happens. The rest, with me." Shepard drew her assault rifle and headed for the elevator, flanked by Liara, Garrus and Nicolas.

As the squad descended, Wrex climbed onto the roof of the mako and inspected the corroded turret, grumbling to himself about young turians being ignorant on weapons maintenance.

Jane pushed a glowing button and the squad descended. The ceiling shuddered and let a thick cloud of dust fall as hidden gears groaned hidden behind the elevator's walls. Liara could not stop talking about how everything on Ilos was completely unknown to the galaxy as a whole. It almost seemed as if she was ready to let everyone leave after Saren, only to stay and study the ruins further. After a long ride, the doors opened to a sort of bridge that ended on a platform with a granite altar. As the team neared it, the altar glowed orange and a hologram came to life. After many millennia, the data concerning the VI's visual appearance had been corrupted or lost, but its functionalities seemed to remain intact, as it spoke in common to the newcomers.

…

"So let me get this straight… the Reapers are in deep space somewhere," Nicolas paced around the elevator.

Shepard nodded and Nicolas continued, "And the protheans sabotaged the Citadel so the keepers couldn't turn it into a relay to bring them back," Shepard nodded again, "Now Saren is going to use the Conduit to get to the Citadel and what?"

Garrus spoke up, "He's going to do what the keepers weren't able to do, bring the Reapers back."

"I knew those little buggers were evil."

The squad's radios came to life with Joker's voice, "Uhh, commander, Sovereign is moving…"

Jane brought a hand up to her helmet, "What do you mean it's moving, Joker?"

"It's detached from the building and heading towards its center. Oh what the f-, it just disappeared, commander. Like, disappeared completely."

Liara gasped, "Saren must have reached the Conduit!"

Shepard began pacing around the elevator, "Joker, get to the spot where you last saw Sovereign and wait there. We're heading for that location."

"Copy, Commander. See you soon."

Jane glared at the button she had pressed to make the elevator ascend. Keeping her hand on her helmet, she spoke again, "Wrex, get the mako ready to go."

Almost immediately, the elevator stopped and the door opened to the mako with its back hatch open, Wrex peeking out from the inside, "Well, hurry in, Shepard. We have a Saren to catch."

The squad had barely sat down on their seats when Shepard stomped on the accelerator, making the mako roar as the wheels struggled to catch on the mud under them. The mass effect core compensated for the torque by elevating the weight of the vehicle and the suspension dipped as they sped down the tunnel, unhindered by the now deactivated forcefield.

"Multiple contacts down the tunnel, Garrus." Nicolas announced as Shepard swerved to avoid the rockets said contacts had been firing.

Shepard accelerated and let Garrus shoot the ones furthest away from the mako before running over the ones that were directly in front of them. There was no time to stop and aim at this point, so they would have to blast through anything that was between them and the Conduit.

…

Joker looked at the vidscreen in front of him showing the view directly under the Normandy. Two armatures stood guard in front of a miniature sized Relay that pointed upwards. He activated the radio, "Commander, I have at least two armatures guarding a little mass relay. What should I do?"

Jane's voice filled the cockpit, "Are they danger-close to the relay?"

Joker knew normal mass relays were virtually impervious to damage. Hell, the one they used to get to Ilos had survived a supernova, according to the Rachni Queen. He was unsure of this little one though, maybe it wasn't made from the same materials.

"Yes, commander. It would be unadvisable to use the Normandy's turrets to shoot them."

"Understood, Joker. I need you to use the relay. It supposedly leads to the Citadel, so try to undershoot the jump."

"Copy that, Commander. See you at the Citadel." Joker instructed the Normandy's systems to interface with the relay, sending it their weight and dimensions as a bolt of blue light connected the relay to the ship before hurling them halfway across the Galaxy.

…

Shepard's squad grunted as the mako dropped into a hole, falling a couple dozen meters before touching down on another semi-flooded path that went deeper into the building. Swerving around a corner, the group saw the conduit through their vidscreens, the video feed distorted by barrages of bullets hitting the shields around the mako.

"Ten contacts on foot all around the mako's front, Garrus! One, two… four armatures surrounding the Conduit… is it- is it closing?" Nicolas had his eyes glued to his vidscreen and the radar feed as he noticed the miniature relay going progressively dimmer.

"Garrus, shoot at the geth on foot! I'm ramming through the armatures." Shepard gnashed her teeth and her gloves groaned against the steering wheel as the mako sped towards the closing relay.

Plasma bursts flew beside the mako and its shields glowed blue as it stopped countless bullets from impacting the hull. A rocket blew up on the shield, finally deactivating it as the mako made a sharp turn to evade a plasma burst but bullets popped the center right tyre. The resulting swerve the mako pulled almost tipped it as more bullets impacted on the exposed underside of the vehicle. On the inside of the cabin, Shepard shouted through gritted teeth as she struggled to keep the mako under control, as Garrus did his best to keep shooting despite the erratic driving.

Nicolas interfaced with the relay as the mako went up a ramp between the geth armatures. The kinetic dampers weren't able to keep up completely with the relay jump's sudden acceleration and the whole squad blacked out as the vehicle was hurled into space.

…

Navigator Pressley walked up to the cockpit, his uniform jacket back at his station. The inside of the Normandy's hull was at forty degrees Celsius due to the stealth systems remaining active even outside the Citadel. Joker wiped the sweat off his brow and fanned his face with his baseball cap as Pressley approached.

"Stay put until the commander shows up, Joker. We can't act against these forces before reinforcements arrive." Pressley eyed the radar feed, where countless dots symbolizing geth spacecraft covered the screen.

"The Serpent relay is inactive, Pressley," Joker explained grimly, "Until Shepard does something, there will be _no_ reinforcements. I'm shutting down all systems except life support, or we'll cook in fifteen minutes."

Ashley spoke from her chair, "Scan the citadel for any activity resembling a relay. Shepard said the Conduit lead to the citadel itself."

"On it," Joker sighed, then he arched an eyebrow, "I'm getting a pretty relay-ish reading from the presidium. I'll use tight-beam comms if it's Shepard arriving."

…

The mako crashed into the presidium, crushing a geth armature as it rolled away from the Relay monument, near the council tower. After flattening a couple more geth platforms, it stopped abruptly against a pile of debris that had come from the tower as Sovereign landed on it.

"Commander? Commander, are you there? I'm using tight beam communication, bearing 28 degrees off the citadel tower, along the arm nearest to the Relay monument." Joker's voice filled the mako's hull as it played on loop.

Shepard came to after the third iteration. She hung upside down on the mako, held in place by the emergency safety straps that had been flash forged when the vehicle made the relay jump. Synthesizing a small filament of red-hot nano-carbide, she cut the straps off, falling to the mako's ceiling. She shook a still unconscious Nicolas and looked back down the cabin at the rest of the squad. Garrus and Wrex had just woken up and were cutting their straps in silence and Jane decided to open the comm channel with the Normandy herself instead of waiting for Nicolas to wake.

"Joker, this is Shepard. I'm in the mako, right beside the Relay monument."

"Oh thank God you're back, commander. There are a shit-ton of geth surrounding the citadel, and the serpent relay's inactive. I'm guessing they got rid of whatever defences they had in the Serpent Nebula pretty quickly and the rest went to prepare for Saren on the other side of the Relay."

"Copy that. Stay in stealth mode for as much as you can, Joker. We're heading for the tower to activate the Relays" Jane nodded as Nicolas and Liara stirred. Sharp thuds shook the cabin as Garrus and Wrex fell on the ceiling simultaneously.

"Good luck, commander, Normandy out." Joker announced, followed by a short moment of static before the channel closed. The squad exited the mako and headed for the elevator to the Council hall, relieved to find no geth forces on the way.

Once aboard the elevator, the squad zoomed up the tower, looking out at the citadel arms. The last time they had been there, the streets covering the citadel glowed with life. Now they were all dark, dotted with red emergency lights. The presidium had also been coated in the ominous red, as well as the elevator. A display near the door showed their location on the tower and only three hundred meters were left when the elevator screeched to a halt. The elevator shaft had been damaged during the geth invasion and was unable to take them any further. Shepard ordered the squad to put their helmets on before she shot the glass window out and they all walked to the outside of the tower. Their mag-boots activated as they stepped onto the outside wall of the tower and they began moving towards the council hall, where they could see the colossal figure of Sovereign holding on to the tip of the structure.

Due to the vacuum at that altitude, Hal displayed a radar feed on Nicolas' HUD to compensate for the lack of noise. Coming from the presidium, a geth dropship caught up to the squad, releasing twenty troops onto the side of the tower before leaving. The squad activated their short range radios and took cover as the geth got into defensive positions, hell-bent on not letting the organics make it to the council hall.

"Garrus, Nicolas! Stay behind and find higher ground to lay down cover fire! Liara and Wrex with me. We're gonna flank them and lift them up so our snipers can pick them off!" Jane shouted into her radio as the squad kept their heads down despite there being no sounds of guns firing.

Nicolas heard nothing but his breathing and his own muffled steps as he followed Garrus around the surface of the tower. He heard a distorted wobbling noise and noticed his shields were taking impacts so he sprinted for a piece of cover Garrus had crouched behind. The turian expanded his assault rifle and peaked around the side of the elevator shaft he had crouched into to fire at a geth trooper that had been pulled upwards by biotics. Nicolas mimicked him and soon only five geth units were left. The biotics had backed off to rest for a little as Garrus and Nicolas kept firing, trying to pick the remaining geth off.

Hal shouted to Nicolas through his translator, "Behind you, meat head!"

Nicolas looked at the radar feed on his HUD and turned to find a small squad of geth rocket troopers approaching. He shook Garrus' shoulder and the two ran towards Shepard, warning of the reinforcements that had surely ran up from the presidium to go unnoticed.

Again, Hal shouted at Nicolas and the human turned to see a rocket headed for him and Garrus. Pushing the turian out of the way, Nicolas was able to use the recoil and evade the rocket, but it blew too close to him and he lost his footing, the shock wave hurling him towards the citadel arms, away from the tower.

Shepard felt the explosion on her feet and looked around to see Garrus running towards them without Nicolas. The turian pointed at his helmet signalling his radio had broken and then at the Citadel arms. Shepard squinted and saw Nicolas floating away from the tower. She activated her tight beam radio and pointed her omnitool at Baker, "Nicolas! Are you ok? Use tight beam comms."

Nicolas tried to shake the dizziness away and stretched his arms and legs out to spin as slowly as possible, surveying his limbs for any damage there might be on his armour. He tried to find the squad on the tower as he drifted further and further away until he received Shepard's message. Finding them, he pointed his omnitool at the squad, "I'm fine, commander," he grunted, "Go on, I'll find a way to catch up."

Garrus entered the channel, "try to find a fire extinguisher to propel yourself back, like the vids!"

Nicolas chuckled at Garrus' calming humour, "I'll figure something out," disabling the radio, he addressed Hal, "Now let's improvise."

* * *

 **Ok so now I should be just a couple of chapters away from the end. I'll try to keep the update schedule weekly, but we'll see. Uni always finds a way to alter my plans.**

 **As always, feedback is appreciated! Don't hesitate to PM or leave a review :D**


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21!**

 **Everything in this fanfic is owned by Bioware. No copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

"Alright, Nicolas, control your breathing," Hal tried to soothe Nicolas as he spun in the vacuum within the Citadel, "Breathe in… breathe out."

"I think I'm gonna puke, Hal," Nicolas panted, his eyes darting from side to side as he tried to find a place to focus on to no avail, "I can't even find the damn tower…ugh."

"Don't throw up! You'll flood the helmet!"

Nicolas swallowed the excess saliva that was filling his mouth. Annoyed, he snapped, "You're not helping!"

"Alright, then… I've got an idea, but you have to start breathing normally at least," Hal waited until Nicolas took a deep breath and continued, "If you could expand your handgun, I can calibrate it so you can use it to stop spinning."

With some effort, he lowered his arm to his thigh, groaning as his centre of spin shifted. Once he had the gun in his hand, he stretched the arm back out and expanded the gun. A few moments of complete silence ensued before Hal spoke again.

"Now here's what you're going to do, and don't do it before I'm done talking. You're going to hold the gun in your right hand and cross your arms, holding them as tight as possible. When I tell you, you're gonna shoot three times as quickly as you can, alright?"

"Got it," Nicolas crossed his arms and closed his eyes as the spin quickened. Hal counted down from three and Nicolas fired the shots. His stomach lurched as the spin changed and he couldn't decide whether to open his eyes.

"Just a moment…" Hal spoke into his translator, "Now, point your gun downwards, careful not to shoot your feet, and fire two shots when I tell you to."

Nicolas did as instructed and fired again. He stopped feeling the pull of centripetal force on his feet and head and decided to open his eyes. It was difficult to judge the distance, but some five hundred meters away was Sovereign latched on to the Citadel tower. Behind the giant, Nicolas was terrified to notice the Citadel's arms were closed, its streets merging in a sea of red veins. Geth ships looked like black shadows covering the Ward's lights as they passed by, like bees flying around their queen that was the Reaper.

"So… I need to get back there…" Nicolas sighed, finally being able to relax for a moment. He said nothing the following seconds, unsure whether he really wanted to go back into the fighting.

"…Are you planning on getting back soon?" Hal was confused at Nicolas' lack of enthusiasm to return to solid ground.

"Well, maybe they have it under control." Nicolas' voice cracked as the weight of everything that had transpired fell on him. He wanted to throw up again as he thought back to Zhu's Hope, Saleon's ship, Noveria and Virmire. He wanted to cry for stalling, knowing full well that Jane was in danger. His heartrate sped up as a panic attack started to surface. Hal took a moment to monitor Nicolas' state before synthesizing diazepam and injecting it discreetly. A minute later, Nicolas felt his thoughts were more intelligible and his nausea was receding. Taking a deep breath, he swallowed a mouthful of saliva and opened his eyes, a determined frown on his face, his voice level, "How do I get back, Hal?"

"Look behind you, Nicolas. Point your gun halfway between the presidium and the ward closest to you… Ok, a bit higher. Shoot from the waist until you overheat and I'll tell you what to do next when we're closer to the tower."

…

Saren's face was seared into Shepard's mind. The look of utter guilt and self-loathing before he shot himself felt as if it would appear on the holo-keyboard in front of her. She felt oddly lucky that he didn't bleed so much, rather than ooze that black goo that husks bled; it would've been a much more unpleasant view if there had been the normal amount of blood. Jane uploaded the program the Prothean VI had given her on Ilos and a control panel popped up. After a few button presses, the citadel arms started opening and the Normandy contacted her once more. Joker complained about the Normandy being an oven and that his seat was all sweaty. It helped her cope with her mixed feelings about Saren.

The turian had been a puppet to a machine that had surely manipulated many before him. Hell, turians were known for putting the greater good of the Council races and their own above all else, and _the best council spectre_ had to watch himself jeopardize it all. It was jarring how quickly Saren decided to take his own life.

The turian and human fleets poured in from the openings between the wards to attack the geth ships and Sovereign. The Destiny Ascension had been successful in evacuating the Council and returned to join the fight against the enemy forces.

The ground team approached her as she double checked the citadel's hidden relay was deactivated. Once they were close enough, she asked them to make sure Saren was dead, just to be alone for a little bit longer.

…

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, holy shit-"

"Nicolas! We're getting close to the tower so keep it together! I don't want to be out here with all this space fighting going on any more than you do, so please focus!" Hal was shouting frantically into Nicolas' ear as ships zoomed by and silent explosions littered the space around them, "Fire two shots to your nine o'clock, careful to do it straight away from yourself, you don't want to start spinning again. Now one on your one o'clock… that's it, you're doing great."

"I'm gonna throw up again…"

"Look, if you hadn't let go of your assault rifle when that rocket blew, we would've gotten to the tower long ago, so quit whining! Give me a minute to calibrate."

A turian frigate zoomed by, missing Nicolas by ten meters, which felt like centimetres due to the size of the ship, "HOLY SHIIIIIT!"

"Alright, alright, it's done! One shot with your arms crossed and another the other way when I count to three, got it?" Nicolas did as Hal instructed and he found himself with his back facing the large windows behind the council hall, "Now, there is atmo around the top of the tower in case a window breaks, so you're going to fire straight ahead and then spin with another shot when I tell you. You'll land on the glass relatively slow, and the artificial gravity should keep you attached to the panes. Now get shooting. I don't want to be floating in this shit storm anymore."

Nicolas gave the shots Hal called for and spun to see the glass panes of the Citadel tower coming closer and closer. He felt a small pang of nausea as his inner organs felt the pull of the tower's gravity take hold of him, speeding his fall up a little. As the windows came closer, he was able to make out a large holoscreen in front of where the council would have stood during its hearings. Behind it was, unmistakeably, Shepard. His eyes stopped darting around to hysterically look out for nearby ships and instead focused on Jane. He tried waving but the reactionary waving of his body made him dizzy, so he stopped and braced for the imminent touchdown.

The glass pane wobbled under his weight, and he bounced a couple of times before resting on the surface. Rolling to have his back on the glass, Nicolas switched the ammo cube on his handgun for a tungsten cube in his belt. Hal calibrated the gun so higher mass rounds would be used, and Baker rolled over once more to face Shepard, shooting at the window.

…

Shepard's head snapped up from the control panel at the noise of the glass panes at the far end of the council tower shattering. She picked her assault rifle up from the ground and aimed at the Council's platform, looking for what she thought was a geth unit. Wrex called her over the radio to inquire about the noise, and she told him not to worry about it as she smiled to herself, watching Nicolas jog down the platform to meet her.

"Where's everyone else?" Nicolas panted as he got near Shepard, Hal activating his suit speakers halfway through the sentence.

"They went down to the gardens to check if Saren was really dead."

"And is he?" Nicolas raised his eyebrows, hoping that his facial expression was readable through the visor.

Shepard was about to nod when Wrex called again, "Better get your asses down here… now."

The two jogged around the holoscreen to see the tower's internal garden glow red. As they got to the edge, they saw Wrex, Liara and Garrus huddled behind some decorative stones as Saren's corpse convulsed and shone red. A blood curdling scream erupted from the dead turian as bits of flesh fell to the floor, combusting on the way down, leaving only the implants Sovereign had installed over who knows how many years. The husk spoke in a robotic voice, " _I am Sovereign. The cycle will continue. Resist and you shall be destroyed."_

Nicolas' heart began to race as Hal injected a small dose of epinephrine, "I say we put him down before he ruins the garden."

Shepard nodded and ran for the stairs as Nicolas jumped down, his artificial joints compressing and hissing once he touched the soft floor.

Saren's figure stood taller than the original, the artificial skeleton stretching to make the hidden artificial muscle cords taught. The mandibles fell off as well as the lower jaw, along with the internal organs, leaving only a sort of energy core that shone red. The arms hung at its sides, the talons crackling as they too stretched to sickening proportions. The husk crouched, readying itself to pounce as it set its eyes on Nicolas.

"Drop to the ground! NOW!" Hal yelled and Nicolas obeyed. Kicking his legs forward, he fell back first to the ground as the husk leapt and narrowly missed Nicolas' chest. It landed on the far wall, digging its claws in to attach itself as it turned its head around 180 degrees to look at the new targets which were now on the wrong side of their cover.

Wrex wasted no time and started unloading his shotgun on the husk, Garrus and Liara following suit. Shepard appeared from the stairwell, assault rifle expanded as she took aim and fired. Saren's husk crawled along the wall at a speed that made it look as if he were in a sped up film, avoiding most of the gunfire, its red eyes fixed on the squad as he went.

"Holy shit, he's scary." Nicolas whispered to himself as he fired as well, doing his best to keep the husk in his crosshairs.

"Just keep shooting. He can't last too long under sustained fire." Hal tried to encourage Nicolas as the husk stopped crawling, preparing to pounce once more.

Liara eyed the crouching husk and noticed it was about to pounce towards Shepard. She concentrated on the tingling in her spine as her arms glowed blue and the tingling extended to her fingertips. When the husk pounced, she created a barrier in its path. The impact of Saren on the biotic wall took a toll on the asari, and her vision became clouded when she mustered up the rest of her energies to push him against the barrier, pinning him in place. Wrex acted immediately and rushed the husk, unloading his shotgun on it and getting a grenade ready with his free hand.

"Lower the barrier, T'soni!" Wrex bellowed as he lobbed the grenade at Saren, its adhesive making it stick to the husk's ribcage.

Liara obeyed, and Shepard watched the creature fall in stasis to the floor, the high explosive grenade beeping. She dropped her assault rifle and stretched her arms out towards Saren, forming a tight barrier bubble around him.

There was a muffled pop as the grenade went off inside the barrier, its blast shining blue and white within the biotics. Shepard lifted the barrier and the smoke cleared to show bits and pieces of reaper technology disintegrating into red smoke and ashes.

…

"WHY ARE WE NOT IN FIRING POSITION?" Ashley shouted from the co-pilot seat. Turian and human ships zipped by silently on her vidscreen as 'Weapons armed' warnings beeped across the Normandy's HUD.

"Williams, calm the hell down!" Joker snapped, "Sovereign is showing an increasing heat signature, that means he's about to fire, and _that means_ I am not gonna throw us into a laser beam!"

Ashley stared at Joker, her teeth still gnashing. Then, after taking a deep breath, she looked at her screen showing Sovereign's shields shrugging off everything the fleets were firing at it. "Nothing's getting past those shields," she murmured.

Joker nodded grimly, "Our projectile speeds just can't match his shields' power."

At that, Ashley's eyes widened, "Joker, how much can you accelerate the Normandy in three kilometres?"

Joker rolled his eyes, "Uhhh… around point zero one C. Why?"

"If you can accelerate towards Sovereign from the end of the citadel arms, I can program our main canon to fire at our top speed!" Ashley smiled at Jeff from her seat.

Joker smiled and nodded wordlessly before turning the Normandy around as Sovereign shot a laser blast towards the fighters that had approached it, destroying most, damaging the rest.

…

"How's everyone?" Jane approached the squad, her head throbbing from containing the grenade's explosion.

Wrex shrugged as Nicolas jogged closer, raising his right thumb. Garrus gave a quick _all good_ when Liara groaned, "My head hurts a little."

Shepard's shoulders relaxed and she allowed herself to smile, "alright, then. Let's head down to the presidium; get away from Sovereign. There's nothing we can do without a ship."

They all headed for the elevator, walking at a slow exhausted pace.

…

"Alright, Williams. I _do_ need to remind you that if we so much as scrape anything on the way to the presidium, we'll be pulverized."

"Just don't let Pressley know we're doing this until it's done." Ashley stared at the HUD, a line displaying their set trajectory. Joker had programmed the Normandy to accelerate once there was an opening that would last over half a second, so all they would perceive would be a small fluctuation in the force of gravity and the next moment they'd be seeing the presidium up close.

After a few seconds, Ashley and Joker jumped in their seats as the Presidium materialized in the viewports of the cockpit.

"Did we hit the target?" Joker gasped.

Ashley stared intently at her radar feed and saw Sovereign's signature separate into several as it floated off the citadel tower, "it was a hit. We blew the shields as well, Joker!"

The two watched the radar feed with satisfaction as more ships materialized near them, having copied the manoeuvre they'd pulled. They smiled to themselves as they heard Pressley scream a ' _what the hell happened_ ' from the CIC.

…

Shepard led the rest of the squad up the stairs to the council hall. They held their helmets tiredly as they walked up slowly. Garrus had produced a small tool set and was frowning at the inner circuits of his helmet, trying to fix his radio. Wrex walked beside Liara, having offered an arm to put her weight on as they went up the stairs.

Once they were in the hall, Nicolas sighed at the sorry state it was in. Smoke covered the ceiling completely and some of the decorative plants were still on fire. The rest were nothing but charred twigs and ashes. He rolled his eyes in frustration when he saw the elevator at the far end of the hall, remembering they would probably have to walk down some other way or wait for extraction. Suddenly, a high velocity round impacted on the outer wall of the tower, sending a shockwave through the hall, shattering windows and making the weak charred trees collapse. The squad clutched at their ears, their hearing gone. Nicolas looked around disoriented. Garrus and Liara were being helped up by Wrex as he pushed them towards the elevator. He felt a hand shake his shoulder and he looked up to see Shepard, her mouth open in a soundless shout, urging him to follow the rest. He got up on weak knees and a disoriented sense of balance and jogged after the rest, risking a glance behind him.

He saw Shepard running behind him and behind her was the large hole leading out to the citadel. Sovereign was floating a couple hundred meters out as bright streaks of light zoomed by, creating red and yellow flashes as they passed. The Reaper maintained its shape for a few blasts, but soon, appendages were floating off in different directions. One of the appendages was struck at an angle such that it seemed to be getting bigger from Nicolas' point of view, even though he was running away from it.

The muffled sounds of boots clacking on the floor were snuffed out by the very clear crash of Sovereign's arm going through the council hall. Nicolas looked forward towards the squad before being engulfed in dust and smoke. He coughed and hacked as the particles flooded into his lungs before he pulled his helmet on. The respirator activated automatically and his HUD highlighted Garrus, Liara and Wrex in front of him. He turned around, his daze wearing off to find Shepard's signature didn't appear.

"Oh no." Nicolas gasped to himself as he walked blindly inside the dust cloud. The distant sound of a skycar came closer and closer before its engines dissipated the dust and Nicolas was able to see the debris mountain in front of him, the vehicle landing behind him, in front of Garrus, Wrex and Liara.

Captain Anderson disembarked from the car and approached Nicolas, who was digging into the rubble.

"Where's Shepard, Baker?"

"Somewhere in here, Anderson! Are you gonna look at me or help me find her?" Nicolas snapped at him as the squad walked around the skycar, grim faces on all of them.

Anderson took a step back and looked at the rubble mountain that had formed. He pursed his lips, contemplating whether he should let Baker convince himself Shepard was gone or stop him right then. As he looked at the top of the pile, a bit of debris lodged itself free and rolled down. Anderson's eyes shot to where the movement had begun and he was able to make out the tell-tale glint of ceramic armour.

"Baker! Look!" Anderson shook Nicolas' shoulder before pointing at Sovereign's arm protruding from the rubble. Nicolas squinted to see Shepard show up from behind it, climbing up and then letting herself sit down on the Reaper. Her face was covered in grey ash and dust and half her hair was a darker shade of red, due to a small cut on the top of her head. The armour on her right shoulder had shattered, and she held that arm up with the other, surely trying to keep any broken bones from shifting out of place.

Sovereign was dead.

…

A week after Sovereign had been defeated, life on the Citadel had, for the most part, come back to normal. Unemployment went down in just a couple of days as large amounts of cleaning and restoration jobs opened, so the population seemed to be a lot more optimistic and good natured than before the attack. Nicolas walked into the C-sec academy, which was absolutely _packed_. Prospective employees were swarming the reception desk, officials were going in and out to the rapid transit station and civilians lined up to speak with Avina and her auxiliary terminal, which had been recently installed. Nicolas walked into the crowded elevator and waited patiently for it to arrive at the Normandy's dock. He squeezed his way out of the crowd and into the temperate air of the outer presidium. In the distance he could see the opposite side of the citadel, the arms stretching up into the distance with the Serpent Nebula glowing blue and purple behind it all. Two marines were going through the inventory of some crate that had arrived, looking at datapad while they scanned the crate with their omnitools. Nicolas nodded to them as he walked by into the airlock and wrinkled his nose at the smell of ozone generated by the decontamination process.

Muffled sounds of modern music and drunken conversation reached him as he entered the CIC. Nicolas looked to his left and found Joker's seat to be weirdly empty. He walked down to the crew quarters and produced some beers and a pack of cigarettes that he had stowed away before heading for the cargo elevator, the muffled noises becoming clearer.

When the elevator door opened, a small smile formed on his face. A row of picnic tables had been brought in and set up in the garage. At the far end were kegs of dextro and levo beer as well as food for both chiralities. The ground team sat along the tables on picnic benches as well as the Normandy's crew. Joker was at the end closest to the elevator, his crutches resting on his chair. Shepard and Chakwas sat beside him, wide grins on their faces as they talked and drank.

Nicolas scanned the rest of the table as he walked up to Shepard, squeezing her healed shoulder lightly while he greeted the rest. Joker told him that once dinner was finished, the rest of the Normandy's crew would go to the other decks and prep it for the take-off the next week. He would stay with the ground team to drink, though.

"How long do you need to be legally sober after a night of drinking, Joker? Wouldn't want anybody overlooking a systems check because of a hangover." Nicolas crossed his arms, the beers he had brought sticking out of his pockets.

"The good doctor will just give me an aldehyde processor tomorrow morning and I'll be fresh as a lettuce!" Joker grinned and Chakwas rolled her eyes.

"I know someone who should have those handy." Nicolas winked and squeezed Jane's shoulder once more before walking down the table to an empty spot between two deckhands.

…

When dinner was over, the crew piled into the elevator, leaving the ground team and Joker alone in the garage. With a few taps on his omnitool, Joker opened the back ramp of the Normandy at the far end of the deck, showing the Serpent Nebula in the distance. Wrex had walked back to his favourite pillar with a keg of Levo beer. Liara and Nicolas followed him, listening to stories of his travels. Garrus sat at the head of the table with Joker, Ashley, and Tali, gushing about the Normandy's weapons systems and the manoeuvre they'd used to get past Sovereign's defences.

"…so I pulled that little bastard out of the sand and fed him to Bacon." Wrex smiled to himself, looking up at the garage's ceiling as he reminisced.

"Who was Bacon?" Nicolas scratched his head, dizzy from all the names Wrex was throwing around.

"His pet Varen when he was two hundred!" Liara and Hal spoke in unison. The asari rolled her eyes, annoyed at Nicolas' memory.

"Only Varren to eat a live thresher maw, even if it was practically a newborn." Wrex nodded, his smile remaining.

Nicolas nodded and excused himself to get another beer. He walked to the ramp instead and sat down to look out at the stars. His empty cup beside him. He felt steps drawing closer until Garrus sat down beside him, "Got tired of Wrex's war stories?"

"I was actually hoping for war stories. He ended up talking about pulling baby thresher maws out of the dirt to feed his pet Varren." Nicolas wiggled his outstretched feet from side to side idly.

"And somehow _that_ is more boring than old war stories?" Garrus chuckled and Nicolas smiled. After taking a few sips, Garrus spoke again, "So now that the mission's over, what are you gonna do?"

"I actually landed a job interview here on the Citadel. Some start-up dudes want to make VI's that could man self-defence suites in civilian spacecraft."

"Sounds, uh… tame." Garrus sipped from his cup again, eyeing the human.

"Yeah, well, I've had enough excitement to last me for a long time. What about you?" Nicolas looked into his empty cup.

"I think I'll go back to C-sec. I could do with a little bit of structure in the way I dispense justice."

"What, all of a sudden spectre work is too wild for you, Vakarian?" Shepard approached and sat beside Nicolas.

"The truth is, commander, I got sick of your mako driving skills," Garrus leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees and smiling at Jane, "And the sleeping pods are too uncomfortable."

"Well, I would lend you my bed, Garrus," Shepard chuckled, then nudged Nicolas with her cup, "But it's the only one that'll fit two."

Garrus felt Nicolas tense up, so he quickly downed his drink and looked down at the empty container, "Spirits, I ran out of beer… I better get some more." With that, he got up and walked away briskly.

Jane looked at him go to the table, completely ignoring the one with the beer kegs, "What made _him_ go away so quickly?"

Nicolas got the beer bottles from his pockets and set them down between them. He took one and twisted it open, the flash-cooling mechanism activated and the air's moisture condensed on the container immediately. He took a big sip as Shepard inspected the label on the second. _Constant's Pale Ale. Brewed and bottled in the Gardens of Eden._ The brand was from Eden Prime.

"I'm uh… I'm gonna be leaving the Normandy soon." Nicolas took another sip from the beer as Shepard put her cup down and opened the bottle, "Might be landing a job here on the Citadel. I got the interview today and I was waiting for the moment to let you know."

"Yeah, I felt that was coming. Now that Saren's gone, the Normandy is the most dangerous place you could be." Jane took a sip and hummed her satisfaction briefly. The two looked out to the Nebula for a while.

Nicolas looked at his feet, then at Shepard, "I don't want _us_ to end, Jane."

She smiled and met his eyes, "Hey, it's still a week until I leave, Nicolas. And I'll be coming back to the Citadel every few weeks. Only drawback is that my missions will be classified to you, so I won't be able to give you a lot of details of my badassery."

"I doubt you'll ever top last week's space-walk I pulled off."

Shepard exhaled through her nose and nudged Nicolas' shoulder, "You should've done it with an assault rifle. It wasn't _that_ cool using a handgun."

"Well, it was either that or winding up in the far end of Tayseri Ward, and I kinda wanted to see you again that day."

Jane laughed and clinked her beer to Nicolas' before taking a long sip. After a satisfied _ah,_ she leaned over to give him a quick peck on the cheek and they sat together, looking out at the dancing lights on the Citadel.

* * *

 **So that brings this part of the story to a close. As I said in the beginning, I want to go through the entire mass effect trilogy, but the next part, I want to do with a mature rating. I was on the edge of rating T as it was with the drug theme, and I want to go further with that as the story continues. I want to thank everyone who's given me feedback on this story, it's really helped me continue writing! The next chapter will be a sneak peek into the next part of Nicolas' story. I'll also give a name for the second part hahaha.**

 **As always, feedback is appreciated!**


	22. Chapter 22: What follows

**So this is the sneak peek to the next part of Nicolas' story. Since it'll have another rating, I decided to also use another name, to give a better feel of the tone of the next part.**

 **Go check the whole chapter out if you're interested! The fic's called 'Life itself is will to power' so yeah, enjoy!**

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Anderson sat at his desk with Joker in front of him, looking down at the sling on his arm. The councillor had tried for the most part of the previous night to think of a way to let the pilot know he was grounded, and the easiest way he could come up with was to use logic, "Jeff, I know this is hard, but your tests show that the commander's death is taking too big a toll on you. We both know you're our best pilot, but I can't let you-"

The door to the office whooshed open as Nicolas stormed in with bloodied fists, "WHERE IS SHE? ANDERSON, YOU FU-" he was cut off by two alliance soldiers who tackled him to the ground and restrained him. Anderson stood and ordered the soldiers to keep Nicolas in the office and shouted for Nicolas to calm down.

Baker struggled at first but took a couple of deep breaths before panting, "What happened to the Normandy?"

Joker answered with a voice he was struggling to keep level, "We were attacked by an unknown enemy. Shepard didn't make it out. She died putting me in an escape pod."

Anderson piped in, "Shepard died saving _all_ of her crewmembers, Joker. Nicolas, we don't know who attacked the Normandy. Whoever they were, they had very advanced technology, since they were able to find the Normandy even while in stealth mode."

"I don't give two shits what technology they had," Nicolas flinched as the soldiers twisted his arm when he struggled, "I want to know where she is."

"I'm sorry, Baker, we can't let you know where her body is. The location of the Normandy's crash is classified, and we cannot send a rescue party into the Terminus without an exorbitant amount of political backlash. Shepard will have to wait."

Nicolas shook his head, baring bloodied teeth from smacking his face on the floor after the tackle he had received, "You spineless alliance cowards!" He was then pulled out of the office as he struggled to break free with more strength. He screamed every curse he knew at the top of his lungs until one of the officers used a stun gun on him and he blacked out from the shock.

He woke up at the C-sec detention centre, soon after he stirred, a familiar face came up to his cell, "Come on, broomhead, you know better than storming into a councillor's office and assaulting two alliance guards," Garrus shook his head, "what were you thinking?"

"They wouldn't tell me where Jane is, Garrus, and they won't go get her. There's no way in hell I'm going to her funeral if the casket's gonna be empty." Nicolas spoke bitterly, his eyes glued to his feet, avoiding Garrus' sight.

"Well, I suggest you go home and get some sleep, or some time to think over things. I can go to your place later today, if you want. The Alliance hasn't pressed charges, so you're free to go," with this, Garrus opened the cell.

"Thanks, Garrus. You don't need to worry about coming over. I'll be fine," Nicolas grumbled as he got up and walked out, tapping his knuckles on the white prosthetic plates on the turian's arm.

That was the last he saw of the turian in a long time.

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 **So that was the sneak peek! Again, thank you so much to the readers who took the time to read this fic. I had a blast writing every chapter and fleshing out this story that I had hesitated for so long to write.**

 **The next installment is called 'Life itself is will to power'. There you'll find the full chapter. Remember it's rated M, so yeah, like, change the search options hahaha.**


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